Taipei, Aug. 27 (CNA) Five Taiwanese aspirants have won the first IELTS (International English Language Testing System) Scholarships contested in Taiwan and will soon head overseas to start the fall semester in selected schools, the British Council Taipei announced Friday.
"We are delighted to announce the five winners of our new British Council IELTS scholarships for Taiwanese students planning to study at postgraduate levels at overseas universities," said Alison Devine, the new director of the British Council, the U.K.'s top international organization for cultural relations and educational opportunities.
Lin Nen-wei, Lee Yi-fang, Wu Pin-hsien, Li Yi-shan and Luh Tau-yu will each receive a scholarship of NT$100,000, said Devine, who assumed her post in late June. Except for Luh, who will be studying in the United States, the other winners will be going to the U.K.
Devine said the winners were among 15 individuals who were selected from a pool of 153 applicants in the first phase of the process before emerging through the second-phase interview process.
Most of the winners are professionals with working experience. Li, who was admitted to the University of Edinburgh, has taught at a junior high school in the central city of Taichung for five years.
Lee, who will attend University College London and major in preschool education, has been an auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers for four years.
"Most Taiwanese students choose to study in the U.K. because it takes only a year, rather than two years in the U.S., to receive a degree. It takes a lot of financial pressure off students and their parents," Lee said.
Annual tuition in the U.K. ranges between NT$400,000-500,000, Lee said, about half what it costs in the U.S.
The winners also praised IELTS, an exam testing the ability to listen, speak, write and read in English, and compared it favorably to the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) , a U.S. Internet-based test, for its face-to-face interaction.
Prudence Chou, the British Council's Exam Service Manager, said the average score of Taiwanese students taking the test increased from 5.59 (out of nine points) in 2007 to 5.72 in 2009, but indicated that there was still room for improvement relative to the average scores of other Asian countries.
According to the British Council, female test takers outnumbered male test takers by a 7: 3 ratio, which one of the winners attributed to Taiwan's social traditions.
"I discussed the fact with my friends and most of them thought that it would be much harder for Taiwanese men to suspend their jobs without pay for a year like me. Men tend to shoulder more 'social pressure' to be financially stable in Taiwan's society, " said Li, who plans to resume her job as a teacher in late 2011.
The British Council Taipei said it will offer scholarships again in 2011 to help more Taiwanese students. (By Chris Wang) enditem/ls