In previous years, foreign students who graduate and study in Taiwan are not allowed to work in the country unless they apply for the respective work permit or work visa. However, Taiwan’s labour officials are now looking into changing that. Taiwan is planning to allow foreign graduate students to work in the country while they are studying. They will be allowed to work from the moment they begin their studies.
This is the action being reviewed by the Taiwan government after receiving a lot of complaints for their local schools and universities that their existing rules prevented their foreign students to work on necessary research projects. According to the existing rules, foreign students may not be allowed to work in the country in the first year of their studies. As a result, the Taiwan government will be implementing new rules to allow these foreign graduate students to work right away the moment they start their studies in the country. However, the work must be related to their studies and must be backed up by the university.
It was the Council of Labour Affairs’ Senior Executive Officer, Chen Jui-chia, who announced that the new rule is in lieu of the many complaints that they have received. Foreign students were shut out on projects that would help them with their academic advancement. It is common practice in graduate studies that professors ask graduate students to work for research during the first year. It would be unfair to exclude these foreign graduates experience in these academically inclined projects. Note however that according to Chen, the old rules will remain for the non-graduate foreign students.