Research on Mongolian Students Studying in Taiwan

Abstract

Due to the blows like internationalization and the declining birth rate, the higher education market in Taiwan has faced an escalation. Accordingly, the domestic universities and institutes have been focusing on international student enrollment policy to settle the issue of not achieving the target enrollment for new students. Thus, the internationalization of higher education encounters a challenge to identify whether the Taiwan universities and institutes can enroll international students by using various ways and provide the international students, who are interested in enrollment in Taiwan universities, with the comprehensive concept and understanding of Taiwan education system and the educational attributes. The internationalization of higher education in Taiwan has been expanding year by year, and the number of international students in Taiwan has reached 127 000, of which 1600 were Mongolian students as of 2018. In connection with the continuous increase in the number of international students, the researches on international students have also become significant. However, the research on Mongolian students studying in Taiwan is relatively few. We have studied the factors, which influence Mongolian students’ choice in studying in Taiwan, besides studying how they adjust to their new life when they first study abroad. In our research, we have used the qualitative research method as the main research method and the methods like a case study and focus group interview in a detailed manner. We have chosen 24 samples from the Mongolian students, who were attending undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate programs in Taiwan in 2019. We carried out the research in the scope of the below-mentioned four objectives: to identify the factors that influenced Mongolian students to choose Taiwan; to identify which channels and possibilities they have used in their enrollment in Taiwan universities; to learn how Mongolian students adapt to their new lives in Taiwan; to suggest substantial recommendations for universities and educational institutes that are interested in enrolling students from Mongolia as international students.