SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies awarded Teaching Grant

10 September 2021

SOAS, University of London has signed a major agreement with Taiwan’s Ministry of Education to promote the School’s Taiwan Teaching programme.

The signing ceremony was held at the SOAS on Wednesday September 8. The agreement was signed by the Director of the Education Division of the Taipei Representative Office to the UK, Andy Cheu-an Bi and the SOAS Deputy Director and Provost Professor Claire Ozanne. The three year grant will allow SOAS to continue to offer its MA Taiwan Studies and extensive range of Taiwan related courses. Additionally the grant will include funding for SOAS students to conduct fieldwork in Taiwan.

SOAS opened its first Taiwan course back in 2000-2001 and has gradually expanded these courses so that it now has the widest range of Taiwan courses of any European or American university. In 2021-22 we will be offering six Taiwan focused postgraduate modules and four undergraduate classes. The Taiwan teaching programme includes modules on Taiwan’s culture and society, cinema, domestic and international politics, as well as its political economy.

After the signing ceremony the Director of the Centre of Taiwan Studies Dafydd Fell commented, ‘This is a very special occasion, coming just after we have just been celebrating the 20th anniversary of the SOAS Taiwan Studies Programme. Running a specialist teaching programme can be quite challenging, so we are grateful for the long-term support from Taiwan. This is the fifth three-year Taiwan Studies teaching grant that SOAS has received from Taiwan’s Ministry of Education and it has been critical in allowing us to maintain such a wide range of Taiwan classes that are not available anywhere else. Our focus on Taiwan Studies teaching is one of the distinctive features of SOAS Taiwan Studies. I was actually a student on the first Taiwan class at SOAS over twenty years ago and it’s been a joy being part of this unique teaching programme since I graduated.’