The Interchange Association (Japan, Taipei Office) has just released their list of scholarship recipients: they will award the much- coveted awards to 101 students here, among them 7 will be the lucky winners from TKU.

Following is the list of the successful candidates: Shih Chien-hung, Lin Shih-yao, Liu Hwei-hsin and Tien Shih-min (they are all graduate students from the Institute of Japanese Studies, TKU, except for Shih who has a B.A. in Japanese). Tsan Sheng-min, with a B.A. and M.A. in Japanese Studies, will be studying law-related subjects; Chuang I-lan will be studying Business and Tsai Yu-ching will be studying Medical Science related subjects. As to the first four students in the group, their designated interest is Japanese language.

Because of the handsome offer of the scholarship, many people took the test (all the candidates will be subject to a crucial examination). Last year there were 500 contestants; this year the number jumped to 800. The competition was certainly tough. The Interchange Association of Japan regulates that the two-year term will include a monthly allowance of l85,500.00 Japanese Yen with the guaranteed payment of the full amount of school fees, an additional fee of 25,000.00 Japanese Yen for the newly arrived novice students and a round-trip airline ticket to and from Japan. The Japanese Interchange Association also requests students be only allowed to apply national universities in Japan, not private ones. One can imagine that those who made it are “le creme de la creme” students.

We have interviewed Mr. Tsan, a successful candidate. Mr. Tsan said he has been employed by the Office of International Exchanges & International Education. He is hoping to enroll in the University of Electro-Communications, a sister university of TKU, to major in Information Processing. But he has his dilemma: either he has to quit his job or go to Japan to further his studies. He cannot have them both. As for Ms. Tsai Yu-ching who has studied Medical Science as an undergraduate, she has come a long way. Her resume in past years include being a nurse, an employee in a Japanese business firm and a ground crew member in China Airlines. Then she switched her interest to Japanese Studies and earned her Master’s degree from TKU’s Institute of Japanese Studies. She hopes to major in Social Welfare Studies when she arrives in Japan.