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2007 Spring – Taiwan Post Fair Report
Record-Breaking Number of Taiwan Students Enroll in U.S. Institutions
Report Contents:
Tour of AIEF’s EducationUSA Advising Center
On the evening of March 23rd, AIEF held a special briefing for U.S. school representatives new to recruiting in Taiwan at AIEF’s award-winning EducationUSA Advising Center in Taipei. The briefing included an overview of recruitment strategies, a question and answer session, as well as a tour of the advising center. AIEF’s Mr. Stephen Smith welcomed the U.S. school representatives and then introduced Ms. Delai Lee, the newly appointed Deputy Director of AIEF-Taipei. Ms. Lee explained that the Taipei Center’s key activities include student counseling, weekly seminars, scholarship programs, publications and E-News, library services, outreach programs to local schools, and testing services. She also urged the representatives to take advantage of the services for schools that the Center offers, such as local advertising assistance, a location for interviewing prospective students, printing and translation services, interpreter support, and making arrangements for schools visits.
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Pre-Fair Orientations
Conducted by Mr. Stephen Smith, the pre-fair orientation for the U.S. education delegation was held on the morning of March 24th at the Howard Plaza Hotel in Taipei. Featured guest speakers at the orientation were from the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Mr. Tony Tung-wen Lin, from the MOE’s Bureau of International Cultural and Educational Relations, offered updates on Taiwan’s education system, recent educational reforms, international bilateral agreements, scholarship programs, and study abroad trends. American Cultural Center Director, Mr. Nicholas Papp, introduced his AIT colleagues, including AIT Cultural Specialist Ms. Judy Chow, and provided a presentation on “IT in Education Advising.” Mr. Papp’s presentation highlighted the effective use of current and emerging technologies for reaching out to prospective students. Mr. Franc Shelton, AIT Consular Officer, noted that the number of students from Taiwan receiving visas to study in the USA has exceeded 16,000 for the first time. Breaking all previous records, an estimated 16,451 students from Taiwan obtained visas to study in the USA in 2006. This figure represents a nearly 6 percent increase over 2005, according to statistics provided by the Ministry of Education.
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Pre-Fair Publicity
Pre-Fair publicity and promotional activities included extensive local newspaper, radio, Internet, and television coverage. Representatives from selected U.S. educational institutions and IELTS were interviewed on ICRT, the local English-language radio station in Taipei, while other fair participants communicated with local students via web chat sessions conducted by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). In addition, AIEF offered free seminars at local public libraries and other sites in Taiwan to introduce the upcoming Fair events.
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Fair Venues & Attendance Statistics
AIEF’s 2007 Spring American Education Fair in Taiwan was held in Taipei at the Howard Plaza Hotel on March 24-25, in Kaohsiung at the Grand Hi Lai Hotel on March 26th, and in Taichung at the Evergreen Laurel Hotel on March 27th. The total number of visitors for all three cities was 6,318, and data from 1,845 students has been collected. Student data will be provided to fair participants following a verification process.
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AIEF’s Student Tracking System
Online pre-Fair registration was offered by AIEF to the exhibition’s visitors. Students who visited the American Education Fair were encouraged to register their educational goals and contact information in AIEF’s student tracking system. AIEF pioneered its online student tracking database in 2001, and has offered the database as a service exclusively to U.S. schools since 2002. AIEF’s emphasis on service, quality, and integrity explains why its current database, the largest of its kind in Taiwan, has accumulated a membership of more than 90,000 student names. Participating U.S. schools will receive a list of the student contacts that visited their school’s booth during the Fair..
 
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Seminars for Students
A series of seminars for students were offered at the Fair venues. Seminar topics included advice on ways to improve English language skills, IELTS English language proficiency testing, selecting and applying to ESL programs, and student health insurance. At the fair venues in Taipei and Taichung, AIT Consular officers Mr. Franc Shelton and Mr. Freeman Zhu conducted sessions on the student visa application process, which included information on how to apply for a visa and the high acceptance rate for visa applications in Taiwan. In Kaohsiung, Mr. Jean Pierre-Louis, Chief of the Economic and Cultural Sections of AIT-Kaohsiung, and Ms. Monica Hsu from the Consular Section, addressed this topic.
 
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Special Fair Attractions
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Fair visitors enjoyed AIEF’s free counseling services.
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AIEF scholarship information was available at all fair venues.
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AIT representatives were on hand at the EducationUSA booth at all three fair venues to disseminate information as well as to answer questions from students and parents.
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AIEF’s free color catalogue introducing summer programs in the USA was distributed to fair visitors.
 
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Student Scholarships
To encourage more students from Taiwan to apply for U.S. undergraduate programs, AIEF has expanded its scholarship program to award an additional $10,000 to students applying for undergraduate enrollment for the fall of 2007. Applicants for AIEF’s undergraduate scholarships need not go through the regular selection process as the scholarships are awarded on a first come, first served basis. In order to be eligible, students must have been accepted by a U.S. college or university for the first time, and must complete their enrollment by the end of the year.
For graduate students, the scholarship application process will remain the same as in previous years. This scholarship has been awarded annually since 1994. Graduate school scholarship applicants will first be screened by AIEF, and the final candidates will later be selected by a scholarship committee, comprised of members representing academic, government, and business sectors.
Through AIEF, the ETTV/Annenberg School of USC scholarship will also be expanding this year. AIEF administers this scholarship program on behalf of ETTV for graduate studies at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications. Created to encourage promising students from Taiwan to follow a career path in mass communications, the purpose of the ETTV/Annenberg School of USC Scholarship Program is to help to cultivate future professionals who will be able to use their expertise gained at USC to develop quality programming for Asian, American, and international communities. The scholarship amount for this program will be US $100,000 for the 2007 academic year.
Schools participating in our fairs are encouraged to submit scholarship information to AIEF in advance for dissemination at future fairs. This service is free to all participating schools.
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2007
Summer and Fall Fairs in Asia
Registration is now open for AIEF’s 2007 Summer and Fall American Education Fairs in Asia. The Fair schedule is as follows:
Summer Fairs in China
July 7-9 – Harbin
July 13-15 – Beijing
July 18-19 – Xi’an
July 21-22 - Shanghai
Fall Fairs in Korea, Singapore and Taiwan
October 6-7 – Seoul
October 9 – Busan
October 11 - Singapore
October 13-14 - Taipei
October 15 - Kaohsiung
October 16 - Taichung
Online registration is available at:
http://www.aief-usa.org/services/signup_fair.htm.
For more information, please visit our Website or call the AIEF office in California at 626-965-1995.*
*Please Note*: Effective, May 7, 2007 AIEF’s office will be relocating to Brea, California. Our contact and mailing information will change as follows:
AIEF
3350 East Birch Street, Suite # 210
Brea, CA 92821
Tel: 714-985-1995
Fax: 714-985-1996
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