Research Papers

Educational exchange plays an important role in fostering intercultural dialogues, building people-to-people contacts, enhancing mutual trust and eventually promoting a regional view and identity. With its inception in 1987, the ERASMUS programme has allowed more than 1 million European students to take part in a study abroad programme at a partner university in Europe. It is arguably one of the most well-known and successful European Union (EU) initiatives and considered as the flagship project of European integration by the European Commission (EC MEMO/02/190 2002, Sigalas 2010). In the case of Greater China Area, student mobility has also increased gradually since 1980s, despite policy restrictions, particularly between China and Taiwan. After the presidential election and consequent political shift in Taiwan in 2008, the discussion on the Bill to allow mainly Chinese students into Taiwan universities, which has been largely neglected in the past, has emerged again in Taiwan’s political landscape and public discussion (Lin 2010). Can the European experience of ERASMUS programme provide some useful insights for the cross-straits dialogue? This paper therefore examines the relevance of higher education and academic mobility in regional integration process in the contexts of Europe and China-Taiwan relations.