Taiwan Prepares to Enroll Students From Chinese Mainland

Taiwan is preparing to enroll students for the first time from select mainland Chinese universities next fall, the Associated Press quotes a vice minister of education as saying. The issue of such enrollments has been tense in Taiwan, where the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party says mainland students should be barred. But proponents hope the initiative, expected to be approved by the Taiwanese legislature, will boost enrollments at the country’s universities, now ailing as a result of its low birth rate. If current patterns persist, more than one in three Taiwanese institutions will close by 2021, Agence France-Presse reported in November.