Why Malaysian Students Choose Taiwan: Scholarships, Cost and Recognition

A shrinking but still significant flow of students

Malaysia has sent students to Taiwan for decades, drawn partly by the large Malaysian Chinese community with existing language and family ties to Taiwan, and partly by cost relative to Western destinations. That flow has been shrinking, however. Malaysian student numbers in Taiwan fell to 9,686 in the 2023-24 academic year, down 8.2% from 10,553 the year before, according to figures reported by Asia News Network . Vietnam has since overtaken Malaysia as Taiwan's largest ASEAN source country, a shift driven by Vietnam's own rapidly growing outbound student numbers rather than any drop in what Taiwan offers Malaysian students specifically.

What still makes Taiwan attractive

Cost remains the strongest pull. Tuition and living costs in Taiwan sit well below equivalent programs in Australia, the UK or the US, and flight time from Kuala Lumpur is under five hours, making trips home during semester breaks realistic in a way they are not for students in Europe or North America. For Malaysian Chinese students specifically, Mandarin fluency removes the language barrier that complicates study in most other destinations, and Taiwan's universities are used to teaching alongside a large existing cohort of Malaysian students, so support networks and student associations are established rather than something you build from scratch.

Scholarship growth

Taiwan's Ministry of Education has expanded scholarship access for Malaysian students over the past decade. The number of Malaysian students receiving the MOE Taiwan Scholarship grew from 20 in 2017 to 37 in 2024, and in 2024 that cohort was joined by 58 Malaysian recipients of the Huayu Enrichment Scholarship for Mandarin study and four recipients of Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) scholarships for master's degrees, according to Taiwan's Ministry of Education . The Taiwan Scholarship itself pays up to NT$40,000 a semester toward tuition and miscellaneous fees, plus a monthly stipend of NT$15,000 for undergraduate recipients or NT$20,000 for graduate recipients, and can run for up to 4 years at bachelor's level, 2 years at master's level or 4 years at doctoral level.

Degree recognition back in Malaysia

Whether a Taiwanese degree counts fully at home depends on the level you study. The Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) and Taiwan's Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council (HEEACT) signed a Memorandum of Arrangement in June 2011, followed by a Joint Statement of Confidence in July 2012, and renewed the arrangement with an MOU signed in Sabah in November 2023. This agreement gives mutual recognition to bachelor's-level programs and qualifications accredited by both agencies, according to MQA's official page on the arrangement .

The agreement does not automatically extend to master's or doctoral qualifications. If you plan postgraduate study in Taiwan and expect to use that qualification for employment or further study back in Malaysia, check your specific program against the Taiwan Quality Institution Directory and the Malaysian Qualifications Register directly, and confirm with MQA before enrolling rather than assuming the bachelor's-level agreement covers you.

What to check before you commit

Confirm three things before applying: that your chosen university and program appear on HEEACT's accredited list, that your specific degree level is covered by the MQA-HEEACT arrangement or has separate recognition, and that you understand which scholarship track (Taiwan Scholarship for degree study, or Huayu Enrichment Scholarship for language study first) matches your current Mandarin level. Applying through the wrong track wastes an application cycle you cannot easily recover once deadlines close.