AIEF Education Foundation | Education Fair Taiwan Article

On the afternoon of Friday, March 18th, Mr. Stephen Smith, Director of AIEF’s East Coast Operations, conducted a pre-fair orientation for 2011 Spring AIEF Education Fair participants at the Evergreen Laurel Hotel in Taipei. Invited guests from the Canadian Trade Office in Taiwan were Mr. Sean McLuckie, Visa Section Director, and Ms. Chloe Chen, Education Promotion Officer.

Mr. McLuckie explained that the visa waiver program allows potential students from Taiwan to visit Canada and to take programs of study that are of six months' duration and less. If they wish to study in Canada more than six months, they must apply for a study permit. McLuckie also reminded the Canadian school representatives that most Taiwanese students need to undergo medicals to obtain a study permit for Canada. Depending on how quickly the students comply with this requirement, the processing of study permit applications generally takes around 3 weeks. Schools were advised to keep this reality in mind and to counsel students to not leave applications to the last minute. Beyond this, study permit processing for Taiwanese students is relatively smooth and uncontroversial, he said. Canadian schools have the potential to attract more Taiwanese students, but they need to increase their efforts to show the strengths of Canadian education, said Mcluckie.

AIEF’s Mr. Stephen Smith pointed out that AIEF has been successfully organizing Education Fairs in Taiwan for nearly 20 years. At AIEF Fairs, students have the opportunity to obtain accurate, up-to-date information directly from authorized school representatives, he said. Smith noted that Canada is the fourth most popular study abroad destination for Taiwanese students, and Taiwan was the #10 top source of international students studying in Canada in 2009. According to statistics from Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, the number of Taiwanese students obtaining visas to study in Canada was 2,230 in the year 2009.

Smith reported that Taiwan is encouraging study abroad by offering study abroad scholarships for academic excellence, profession-related internship programs, and economically disadvantaged students. He recommended several strategies to help Canadian schools bolster their student recruitment efforts in Taiwan, including offering seminars, visiting local schools, and promoting networking between Canadian and Taiwan schools.

Pre-Fair publicity and promotional activities included extensive local newspaper and radio coverage, web announcements, e-newsletters, and posters & flyers. Representatives from selected educational institutions were interviewed on ICRT, the local English-language radio station in Taipei, as well as by local newspapers. AIEF offered free seminars at local public libraries and other sites in Taiwan to introduce the upcoming Fair events.

On Saturday and Sunday, March 19-20, AIEF’s 2011 Spring Education Fair in Taiwan was held at the China Petroleum Corporation (CPC) facilities, situated near the famous Taipei 101 tower, one of the tallest buildings in the world and a major tourist attraction.

On Monday, March 21, participating school representatives traveled via Taiwan’s High Speed Train to attend the Kaohsiung Fair in the Grand Hi Lai Hotel. On March 22, the group traveled by bus to Taichung for the AIEF Fair at the Evergreen Laurel Hotel.

Including online registrations, AIEF collected data from 2283 students at the events in Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taichung. Student data will be sent to each participating school in accordance with the visiting log at its booth.

Online pre-fair registration was offered by AIEF to the exhibition’s visitors. Students who visited the AIEF Education Fair were encouraged to register their educational goals and contact information in AIEF’s student tracking system. Following our verification of student data, participating U.S. schools will receive a list of the student contacts that visited their individual school’s booth during the Fair.

A series of free seminars for students were offered at the AIEF Fair venues. Seminar topics included “The TOEFL ® Test – Your Passport to the World,” “A New Kind of MBA: The Early Career MBA,” and “Student Loan to Study Abroad.” At the Taipei Fair venue, Mr. Stanley Lin from the Canadian Trade Office in Taiwan offered a presentation on the student visa application for Canada.

Fair visitors enjoyed AIEF’s free counseling services at all three Fair venues. Based upon the academic background and goals of the visiting students, AIEF counselors provided guidance to students to visit the booths at the fair venue.

At the Taipei Fair, volunteer students were sponsored by the Kang Chiao Bilingual School and Pu Tai Senior High School. The Kaohsiung Fair was sponsored by the Fooyin University, while the Taichung event was sponsored by the Chia-Yang High School. The group from I-Shou International School was led by College Guidance Counselor, Ms. Carol Ann Siegel.


Student Translators (in yellow jacket) are provided for each school booth.	Student Volunteers (in blue jacket) are at work at the venue.	Interpreters and Volunteers Training

AIEF treated the school representatives to a variety of delicious Chinese dishes at lunches at the Kaohsiung Grand Hi-Lai Hotel on March 21, as well as at the Taichung Evergreen Laurel Hotel on March 22.

Free copies of the 2011 Spring edition of UScampus Guide were issued to all Fair visitors. Created by AIEF, this semiannually published magazine offers accurate and up-to-date information to international students interested in studying abroad. Complimentary copies of the magazine are distributed at all of AIEF’s Education Fairs in Asia, as well as to public libraries in other sites. UScampus Guide is also distributed to Educational Advising Centers in 16 countries in the region, as indicated in the inside back cover of the magazine.

Canadian educational institutions are encouraged to place advertisements in the UScampus Guide. For more information, please e-mail info@aief-usa.org.

School representatives visited AIEF’s Taipei Education Center on March 18th. Ms. Pearl Wu gave the visiting group a tour of the facilities and introduced the activities conducted at the Center, including the library resources, computer testing center, student advising, and seminars. School representatives were encouraged to leave copies of their schools’ materials at the Center for the benefit of students in Taiwan who are planning to study in Canada.

Registration is now open for AIEF’s 2011 Fall Education Fairs in Taiwan. The Fair schedule is as follows:

Fall 2011
    Taiwan
      Taipei – Sept. 24-25
      Kaohsiung – Sept. 26
      Taichung – Sept. 27

Online registration is available at: http://www.aief-usa.org/services/signup_fairca.htm. For more information, please visit our website, www.aief-usa.org, or call the AIEF office in California at 714-985-1995.