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Chart 3. The Distribution of Respondent’s Sex
Most of the correspondents are from Banda Aceh, the capital city of Aceh,
reaches 40%. Then follow by those who are from Northern Aceh, Eastern Aceh,
Southwestern, and Central Aceh. Meanwhile, there was no correspondent from small
islands in Aceh. For the result of the group of age, these are the highest three group of
age who are currently studying in Taiwan. The first one is 27.5% for 25 – 29 years old,
then 26.25% for 30 – 34 years old, and 22.5% for 20 – 24 years old. All of the
correspondents’ religion is Islam. Meanwhile, 60% of their last education is bachelor
degree, while another 40% is master degree. It is also showing that there are more
than 50% of the correspondents who have been living in Taiwan for one year.
The second group of the question asked was about the type of scholarship they
got during their study in Taiwan. The data showed that 100% correspondents who are
currently studying in Taiwan are the scholarship recipients. The majority of them got
IHRD scholarship; with the percentage reaches 80% of them. The second high
percentage is university scholarship, 18.75%. On the other hand, none of them receive
40%
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a scholarship from MOE, and only 1.25% received ICDF scholarship. Please look at
the chart provided below regarding the distribution of kind of scholarship received by
the awardees.
Chart 4. Kind of Scholarship Received by the Acehnese Students in Taiwan
Even though the correspondents received the scholarship from a different
foundation, all of them got the full scholarship to study in Taiwan. Full scholarship
here includes tuition fee, credit fee, dorm fee, and a monthly stipend. For the monthly
allowance, 81.25% of the correspondents get around NT$ 11,000 – NT$ 15,000,
while the rest 18.75% get around NT$ 6,000 – NT$ 10,000.
The next group of questions was about the type of study. The data showed that
60% of the correspondents are enrolled in the northern universities, mostly located in
Taipei and Hsinchu. The second-high percentage is followed by southern universities,
which are located in Tainan and Kaohsiung. Only 12.5% of correspondents are
enrolled in universities located in Taichung and Hualien. Furthermore, 80% of
80%
0%
1%
19%
IHRD MOE ICDF University Scholarship
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correspondents are majoring in engineering and computer science, while the other
20% are majoring business, accounting, social science, and medical science.
During their study, there are two languages used as communication media, it is
either English or Chinese Mandarin or can be both of them. Almost all of the
correspondents are enrolled in the full English program with the percentage is 60%.
Meanwhile, the rest of them are enrolled in the mix languages, both English and
Chinese Mandarin used as the communication language in class.
The fourth group of question is the type of living situation. According to the
correspondents, most of them are quite comfortable living in the school dorm. The
percentages students who are living here is reaching 60%, then follow by living at
shared apartment with 30%. Only 10% of them who choose to live in a single studio
room. These students believe that residing in the school dorm is cheaper and more
convenience since it is very close to the school. The only issue they face is food.
Since all of the Acehnese students who are studying in Taiwan is Islam and they have
very strict diet not to eat pork, and anything contains pork inside due to religious
reason, this makes them prefer to cook than buy outside food. Some of the universities
provide kitchen in the dorm, but unfortunately, students can only cook certain time
because the dorm officials have set a timetable that allowed students to cook. Because
of this cooking timetable, all of the students will cook at the same time and often the
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kitchen is way too small if all students are inside there. This situation makes some of
them hard to cook, although there is the kitchen in their dorm. Even worse, some of
the universities do not have the kitchen in the dorm and students are prohibited to
cook anything inside the dorm.
In contrast, 40% of correspondents who choose off-campus stated that there are
couples of reasons why they decide to live outside the school dorm. Reason number
one is because of cooking. By living off campus, they can cook and prepare their own
meal, since it was quite hard for them to find halal food. The next reason is because
they can provide a place to stay if there is a family member who visits them in Taiwan.
Their family can stay together with them in that apartment. On the other hand, if they
live in the school dorm, it is prohibited to let the family member stay inside their
room. So that, they found it is very convenience for them to live off campus.
However, there are also disadvantages living off campus. One of them is the
monthly rent fee could reach two to three times more expensive than living on campus.
Also, they still need to pay for electricity, the internet, water, and gas bill, while in the
school dorm these are free. The next one, they found it is quite hard to communicate
with their neighbors around due to the language barrier, while in college dorm there
will be at least one official in the dorm who can speak English to accommodate the
international students’ need.
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The fifth group of questions is about students’ adaptation while living in Taiwan.
The first question asked is regarding the difficulty to adapt while residing in Taiwan.
The majority of the correspondents, 80% of them, claimed that it was quite difficult to
live in Taiwan for the first time, but then lately they can adjust. The two most difficult
things that they are difficult to adapt to are food and language. Meanwhile, it is not
that difficult for them to adjust to the weather and the Chinese culture quickly.
Although 95% of the correspondents have never been studying abroad before, this
food and language barrier things do not disturb their concentration to keep on
studying.
However, on the fourth question from this group of question, 80% of the
correspondents have a couple of issues regarding the language during the lectures.
The first one is because English is not their native language, so they have to work
hard to finish their study. The second one is regarding the language used during the
studying process. Around 40% of them wrote their complaint about this. Even though
they are enrolled in the full English program, the professor sometimes will deliver the
lectures full in Mandarin Chinese, since most of the students are Taiwanese and it will
be easier for them to understand all the lectures. Then after the class finish, the
professor will deliver again his lectures in English to them privately in ten to 15
minutes. According to this 40% of correspondents, they are quite disappointed,
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because both the professor and the students do not commit to the regulation assigned
by the department. And also, they believe that the fifteen minutes of the private
lectures is not as worth as the three hours of regular lectures since there will be quite a
lot information they have missed. In addition, they also have difficulty in keeping up a
discussion with classmates, although they are welcomed to deliver their opinions in
English.
Last but not least, from the sixth question of this group is regarding their hope to
accomplish while at graduate school. The majority of them have two goals to
accomplish during their study, namely academic goal, and personal goal. The first one
is regarding the educational goals, to achieve their academic target, they hope they
can graduate and obtain a degree with a good score as well as deepen their
understanding in particular subject. The other one is to achieve their personal goals.
Each person has their own different personal goals, but mostly it is about
self-improvement. For instance, to live outside my comfort zone where they can meet
challenges and try to find ways to overcome them, to improve their Mandarin Chinese
while in Taiwan, and the last is to mingle with both local and international students,
where they have a chance to expand their link through overseas.
The next group of question is about correspondents’ future plan. The author will
describe question number one, together with question number two and three, since it
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is related to each other. Statistically, it is shown that 60% of the correspondents are
willing to return and work in Aceh right after they graduate directly. In contrast, 30%
of them decide to either to stay in Taiwan for some time while looking for a job
opportunity or to find information in order to continue their degree. Meanwhile,
another 10% of them have not decided yet, whether they will stay in Taiwan for a
while or directly return to Aceh. The chart regarding their future plan after finishing
their study in Taiwan can be seen as follow.
Chart 5. Students’ Plan after Finishing Their Study in Taiwan
In accordance with the correspondents’ answer, after finishing their degree, 40%
of them are interested in becoming lecture or researcher, while almost 20% of them
are more interesting to become government officials in Aceh. And the rest of them are
interested in working as entrepreneurs, doctors, consultants, etc. Besides, these
students believe that this scholarship program will help them to achieve their job
easier. They also believe that being one of the scholarship recipients gave them a
number of advantages. By studying abroad, they have a chance to improve their
60%
30%
10%
Return to Aceh Stay in Taiwan Not Sure
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personal skill to the fullest, to experience living abroad, to compete with students
from all overseas, and to study harder. They believe that these personal objectives
may hardly be achieved if they just continue their higher educational degree in Aceh.
Those are all of the experiences while studying in Taiwan can hope to make them
become a better person. Therefore, it is expected that this will make them be more
compatible. The author also provides the type of work that students are interested to
work at after graduated.
Chart 6. Type of Work Chosen by Students after Finishing Their Study
The last group of questions asked to these correspondents is regarding their input
towards IHRD. This group of question is very important since it is related to policy
and administration evaluation. In short, it is expected that this part may become the
input to IHRD in order to improve their management in managing this scholarship
program.
To begin with, all of them agree that this scholarship program is a good decision
from the Government of Aceh in order to improve the education quality in their
37%
38%
19%
6%
Teacher/Lecturer Researcher Government Official Others
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province. Besides, this program gives a big chance to Acehnese to study abroad
become higher. Before IHRD established, they have to compete nationally in order to
be one of the scholarship recipients from other foundations, such as Australian
Development Scholarship (ADS), Chevening Scholarship, and many others. The
quota from those foundations is very limited. It is hard for Acehnese to compete with
other Indonesians nationally; since 30 years of conflict and tsunami has made their
education rank went down sharply.
Unfortunately, 90% of the correspondents believe that the management of IHRD
has to be improved. The biggest problem appeared is the communication problem. It
is really hard to communicate and to deliver correspondents’ aspiration to the IHRD
officials. Even 40% of them wrote that the officials hardly respond to their emails, so
it makes them curious whether or not their emails are delivered.
Related to cooperation that has been established between IHRD and ESIT, 60%
of correspondents stated that it is a good move from IHRD to have this since ESIT
can help the students with the administrative things starting from before they depart to
Taiwan and after they finish their degree. Meanwhile, another 40% of them are being
so critical towards this cooperation. For instance, they do not see any of significant
advantages of ESIT in helping them with the administration things. In fact, they did
the administrative thing by themselves, such as applying ARC, dealing with the first
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administration of the University, and others. Furthermore, when they have a
complaint, they do not know where to complaint, either to ESIT or to IHRD. Often,
these two sides respond it very late. It is expected that this cooperation will bring
more advantages in the near future.
In addition, there are two suggestions offered to IHRD from these students in
order to manage this scholarship program well. The first one is to hold a public
hearing with the scholarship recipients at least once in a year since the evaluation
plays an important role to improve their management and to pretend them to make the
same mistake over years. The second one is to respond their complaint as fast as
possible since it is often that their complaints through email are rarely responded fast.
In accordance with the question related to language training (Chinese Mandarin) prior
to departing to Taiwan, 90% of them agree that it is very important. Since there is not
many local people in Taiwan are able to communicate in English so that this training
is highly important. Furthermore, for those who are studying outside Taipei, the
capital city of Taiwan, knowing basic Chinese Mandarin will be very helpful, since
the more they go to the South of Taiwan the less people can speak English.
On the contrary, it is so unfortunate that starting from 2013 the scholarship
recipients will only get language training in Aceh, while before that they got the
training both in Aceh for six months and then continue at Chung Yuan Christian
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University, where ESIT office is located, for about two months. It is a pity because
they will have no environment to practice their Chinese while in Aceh.
The last question from this group of question is about the correspondents’
dedication toward Aceh, especially in term of educational. Related to this issue, the
author has collected three major answers. The first one is for those who plan to be
lecturers or teachers; they hope that by transferring their knowledge to their students
as well as motivate their students to try to study abroad in order to broaden their mind
and get more experience. The second one, some of them who plan to be part of
government officials hope that they will work with discipline, eliminate the corruption
culture, and also take a decision to be right on target. The last one, some of them who
are from the remote area in Aceh will spread this scholarship information as well as
will provide them the basic English lesson, so that from those who are not from the
city also has a chance to receive the scholarship, either from IHRD or any other
foundations.
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CHAPTER 4
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS
It is evident that education plays a significant role in cultivating highly-skilled
people. Education is also the foundation for personal development, social
advancement, vibrant economic prosperity, and national sustainability, and it
shoulders the mission of enhancing national literacy, as expected by every government
from all countries in the world, including Taiwan.
Therefore, Taiwan Ministry of Education has developed a department called Elite
Study In Taiwan (ESIT) to help international students who want to continue their
higher education in Taiwan. ESIT has cooperated with several Southeast Asia
countries in order to give their students bigger chance to study in Taiwan (ESIT, 2009).
One of those countries is Indonesia, particularly Aceh Province.
Thus, this chapter below will provide the answer to research questions asked
earlier in the first section. All of the three asked research questions are related to the
cooperation between IHRD and ESIT in term of higher educational scholarship
program.
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4.1 How this scholarship program can tighten the bilateral relations between
Aceh and Taiwan, especially regarding educational cooperation?
In the previous chapter, the first five questions of the interview were determined
to focus on this issue. In accordance with the interviewee’s respond, the primary focus
why IHRD decided to cooperate with ESIT in this field is to maximize the
effectiveness of this scholarship. IHRD was established in 2005 and it, of course, had
several weaknesses in order to control and to get the actual information regarding
their all their scholarship recipients. The recipients of this scholarship were not only
to Taiwan, but also many other countries, such as Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, USA,
UK, and so on. Therefore, IHRD needs to work together with the third party in order
to run this program well. ESIT was chosen to be a partner with IHRD since it
provides necessary services for the higher education between Taiwan and Aceh.
The necessary services offered by ESIT are to assist with the initial interviews
with the scholarship recipient candidates prior to their coming to Taiwan. It is
believed that, this way will make the selection process for scholarship recipients
become more objective. It is because the judges are not only from IHRD officials but
also from ESIT officials. So that, in the end, both of officials from will decide
together who are deserved to receive this scholarship.
The second service offered is more into administrative things, for instance, to
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link the students and university with the IHRD. ESIT is willing to become a bridge for
both university and IHRD in order to pretend the language barrier that might happen.
Later on, the last service offered is to help IHRD distributing the scholarship expenses
to students in Taiwan. This means IHRD will transfer all the funds to ESIT account as
much as all expenses needed by students who are studying in Taiwan. And then, ESIT
will transfer the funds to the students’ account one by one accordingly. This may
sound a bit complicated, but IHRD does this in order to avoid the misuse of the
scholarship funds that was once happened before.
On the other hand, it is a good opportunity for Taiwan to promote their higher
educational degree. ESIT, an institution that is commissioned right under the Ministry
of Education in Taiwan, help to run one of the missions from the Government of
Taiwan in order to encourage outstanding international students to undertake degree
programs in Taiwan. It is written on the website of the Government of Taiwan that this
program has established since 2004.
After the agreement between IHRD and ESIT signed, there are a couple positive
activities held in order to tighten the bilateral relation between these two sides. IHRD
activities held in order to tighten the bilateral relation between these two sides. IHRD