Taipei, Dec. 7 (CNA) The Ministry of Education (MOE) will hold 17 seminars around Taiwan Dec. 10-23 to explain the government’s plan to recognize Chinese universities and open local tertiary education institutes to Chinese college students amid concern in some quarters that doing so could jeopardize Taiwan’s sovereignty and job market.

Liao Kao-shien, director of the MOE’s Higher Education Department, said the ministry decided to explain the two issues to the public face to face in the seminars, with the first one to kick off in Kaohsiung City and the last one to be held in Taipei City.

According to Liao, the ministry is planning to gradually recognize diplomas issued by over 100 elite Chinese universities in three stages — 41 top Chinese universities in the first stage, 55 in the second stage and an as-yet undecided number in the third stage. Police and military higher education institutes will be excluded.

In addition, he said, the MOE is projecting to make the policy retroactive to 1997, but will continue to heed public opinions in this regard, as there are strong local fears that the measure might affect the local job market.

The MOE has initially decided that Chinese graduates must leave Taiwan within a month of completing their studies and will not be permitted to find work in Taiwan.

In terms of the maximum number of Chinese students allowed to pursue higher and advanced studies in Taiwan, the MOE said that the number will be around 1 percent of the total number of every year’s freshman intake — about 2,000 per year. Each university will be authorized to have a maximum 2 percent of Chinese students enrolled at any one time.

The MOE plans to allow Chinese graduate students to pursue master’s courses at public universities, while private universities will be permitted to enroll undergraduates.

Because of the ferry services established between the Taiwanese islands of Kinmen and Matsu and two ports in China’s Fujian Province, the quota of Chinese students opting to study at colleges or universities on the two outlying islands might be larger, depending on the applications from each school, Liao said.

In principle, Chinese college or graduate students will be permitted to stay in Taiwan proper for up to two years, with exceptions to be studied on a case-by-case basis, he added.

While in Taiwan, Chinese students will not be entitled to work, while their visas will be issued in accordance with the rules governing foreign or overseas Chinese students. (By K.Y. Liu and Flor Wang)

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