Around 13,000 international students without residence permits, along with recipients of Huayu Scholarship, will be allowed to enter Taiwan, according to Peters Chen, Education Director, Education Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India. This will benefit many Indian students, who were longing to enter the country for on campus studies.
Taiwan closed its borders on May 19 after the country saw a spike in COVID-19 positive cases, over 100 cases continuously for five days. Taiwan has now eased its COVID-19 restrictions, as number of cases has rapidly fallen these days, two to four positive cases per day. This gave authorities confidence to lower the alert level.
The Friday announcement came following the Ministry of Education Taiwan announcement on August 11 that it was planning to allow international students enter Taiwan as the new semester is about to start in mid September.
According to the guidelines issued by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), international students who are granted entry must present a negative COVID-19 PCR test result before boarding a plane, and receive both a deep-throat saliva test as well as a PCR test upon their arrival.
Newly-enrolled degree students and recipients of the Huayu Enrichment Scholarship can enter Taiwan soon. Mr Chen said that from Monday, universities will inform students who already have got admission on how they can enter Taiwan and what types of measures they will be required to take. Basically, the 14-day quarantine and self-health management for another seven days will be a must.
Although the cases continued to increase in some other countries, it is expected that there will be hundreds of Indian students coming to apply for visa and go to Taiwan for their further studies. Students who are not going to Taiwan in September can start to apply for 2022 spring admission, since many universities have been open for application now, he added.
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