Student aid

Where the official information is

The Ministry of Education (MOE, 教育部) keeps its aid schemes on one site, 圓夢助學網 (edu.tw/helpdreams), in Chinese. It has sections for fee reductions, aid for students in hardship, emergency relief, student loans and scholarship listings. Its "free tuition" (免學費方案) section is about senior high school, not university.

Most of the local schemes below are for students who are Republic of China (Taiwan) nationals. Each section says who qualifies.

Fee reductions by status (學雜費減免)

If you or your family has one of the statuses below, part or all of your tuition and fees (學雜費) can be reduced. "Tuition and fees" covers tuition, miscellaneous fees and credit fees.

How to apply

• You apply at your own school, around February and September each year, by the school's deadline.
• New students: apply at registration, with the documents that prove your status.
• Continuing students: apply at the end of the semester before. The reduction then shows on the next semester's fee bill.
• Documents usually include your household register (戶口名簿, with full details) or a household record issued in the last three months. For low-income and disability status, the school can check your status in the Ministry of Health and Welfare's electronic system, so you may not need to bring proof.

Rules to know

• You choose one type of reduction. They can't be combined.
• In principle, fees for extra years beyond the normal length of study, retakes and make-up courses are not reduced.
• Students with a disability are the exception. Their own reduction also covers retakes, make-up courses, a minor, a double major, teacher education programs and extra years (one retake per course). Students identified as having a disability through a special education assessment, without a disability certificate, get the mild rate.

Private university fee reduction

Since February 2024, under an MOE plan to narrow the gap between public and private university fees, Taiwanese students at private universities get a fixed reduction.

• Who Republic of China nationals enrolled at a private university or college in Taiwan, in a bachelor's program (including post-bachelor's programs) or an associate degree program, within the normal length of study.
• How much Day programs: NT$17,500 per semester, down to zero fees at most. Continuing education programs: 50% of credit fees, up to NT$17,500 per semester. At most NT$35,000 a year.
• How Automatic. The school checks its enrollment records and takes it off at registration. You don't apply, and the school may not ask you to pay first and refund you later.
• Not covered Fees for extra years, retakes and make-up courses.
• Combining Not given if you already receive another government fee reduction or subsidy, unless a rule says otherwise. A grant from the aid plan for students in hardship (below) is allowed alongside it.

Aid plan for students in hardship

The plan is now called 大專校院不利處境學生助學計畫. It used to be 大專校院弱勢學生助學計畫, and many people still use the old name. The latest version is from June 30, 2026. Its aim is that university students whose family income is roughly in the lowest 40% get help from the government or their school. It has five parts: a grant, living grants, emergency relief grants, dorm benefits, and a menstrual products subsidy.

The grant (助學金): who can apply

• Republic of China nationals with household registration, enrolled at a university or college in Taiwan, within the normal length of study.
• Not included: the first three years of seven-year programs, the first three years of five-year junior college, the Open University, in-service graduate programs, and people covered by Article 5, paragraph 3, item 7 of the Public Assistance Act (社會救助法).
• Family income: NT$900,000 a year or less for bachelor's and associate degree students; NT$700,000 or less for master's, doctoral and other students. This is the household's total income on the most recent assessed tax year.
• Interest income: no more than NT$20,000 for the family. Interest from the Bank of Taiwan's preferential savings deposits, on a principal of NT$1 million or less, can be reviewed by the school with proof.
• Real estate: no more than NT$6.5 million for the family, using the Ministry of Finance's national property tax values. Some land with no economic use, such as Indigenous reserve land, can be deducted.
• Grades: an average of at least 60 in the previous semester. New and transfer students are exempt.
• "Family" means: unmarried students, together with their parents or legal guardian; married students, together with their spouse; divorced or widowed students, on their own.
• If you already receive an MOE fee reduction or similar government aid, you can't also get the grant, unless a rule says otherwise.

How much (per academic year)

The grant covers tuition, miscellaneous and credit fees, but not extra years, retakes or make-up courses. If you pay less than the grant amount, you get only what you paid. A private school that charges public school fees follows the public column.

Dates

Living grants, emergency grants, dorms and other help

• Living grants (生活助學金): each school sets its own rules, places and review. Priority goes to students with lower family income or difficult circumstances. If a school pays NT$6,000 a month or more, it may ask for service learning in return. If it pays NT$3,000 to under NT$6,000 a month, it may not. Service learning is at most 8 hours a week and 30 hours a month, and the grant amount can't change with the hours.
• Emergency relief grants (緊急紓困助學金): for students who have newly become poor or nearly poor, or whose family faces an emergency such as sudden illness or an accident. Each school sets its own rules.
• Dorms: students from low-income households who meet the grade conditions get a free on-campus dorm, and students from middle-to-low-income households get priority, including over winter and summer breaks.
• Renting off campus: since 2024, rent help for these students comes from the Ministry of the Interior's NT$30 billion rent subsidy program, not from the school.
• Menstrual products subsidy: NT$1,200 per semester (breaks included) for students who that semester receive a low-income, middle-to-low-income, disability, special circumstances or Indigenous fee reduction, or who receive the grant that year and have registered.

Emergency relief from the MOE (急難救助)

The MOE's emergency relief payment (學產基金急難慰問金) is applied for at your school, within three months of the event, once per event for each family.

• You are in hospital for seven days or more through illness or injury, or die in an accident: NT$10,000. A serious illness under National Health Insurance's major illness standard: NT$20,000.
• A parent missing for six months or more, in prison, or involuntarily unemployed: NT$10,000. A parent dies: NT$20,000. Other situations are listed too.
• Not paid if the family's income was NT$1 million or more in the last year, or its real estate is worth NT$10 million or more, except in cases such as abuse or abandonment by parents.

Student loans (就學貸款)

New rules took effect on August 1, 2026, the start of the 2026-27 academic year (115 學年度).

Who can borrow

• Republic of China nationals with household registration, formally enrolled at a registered school in Taiwan.
• Family income of NT$1.2 million a year or less. Or over NT$1.2 million, if you have at least one brother, sister or child who is a minor, or who is an adult enrolled at a school in Taiwan. Family income comes from the Ministry of Finance's Fiscal Information Agency for the latest year; if you disagree, you can ask the tax office to review it.
• Students on public funding (公費生) can't borrow. If you already get an MOE fee reduction, grant or subsidy, you borrow only the difference.
• You need a guarantor who is an ROC national with household registration: a minor needs one legal representative or a suitable adult; an adult needs a suitable adult.

What you can borrow

How to apply

• Loans are made once a semester. Your school announces its rules before registration.
• Before registration, you and your guarantor apply at the lending bank and sign the contract in person (對保). At registration, ask the school to defer your fees.
• The first time at each level of study, bring your household register (with full details), your seal (印章), your ID card and the registration fee notice. Your parent or guarantor comes too. After that, each semester you bring your own seal, ID card and fee notice.
• The lending bank depends on where your school is: Bank of Taiwan for Taiwan Province, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung and Tainan; Taipei Fubon Bank for Taipei City; Bank of Kaohsiung for Kaohsiung. Land Bank of Taiwan and other approved banks also lend.
• Once approved, the school keeps the part for fees, on-campus housing, insurance and internet. The part for books, off-campus housing, overseas study or living costs is paid to you.

Interest

• From August 1, 2026: no interest while you study. The government pays all of it.
• When you repay: the government pays 1% and your rate falls from 1.775% to 0.775%.

Repaying

• Repayment starts the day after two years have passed since you finish (graduation, compulsory military service or a teaching internship). In-service program students start right after finishing. You repay in equal monthly installments.
• Each semester you borrowed gives one year to repay. With approval it can be one and a half years, and with low-income or middle-to-low-income status two years.
• If you keep studying in Taiwan, repayment waits until you finish your last stage of study. If you go abroad to study, live or work, you repay everything before you leave. Students with strong grades who hold a government study-abroad scholarship can ask to defer.

If repaying is hard

• Defer the principal: if your average monthly income in the year before repayment was under NT$50,000, or you have low-income or middle-to-low-income status, you can defer repayment of the principal one year at a time, up to 12 times. The government pays the interest. The income line goes up NT$10,000 for each child who qualifies.
• Longer repayment: after 12 deferrals you can ask to extend the repayment period. You pay the interest then, with a 0.1% government subsidy.
• Interest only: anyone repaying can ask the bank for up to 12 years of interest-only payments.
• Major disasters: after a disaster the government recognizes, you can defer the principal one year at a time, up to three times.
• Not repaying: the bank pursues the debt and reports it to the Joint Credit Information Center (金融聯合徵信中心), which records bad credit until it is paid.

Bank of Taiwan student loan hotline: 0800-025-168 or (02) 2191-0025.

Campus work (工讀) and student assistants

An MOE guideline from November 2018 sorts student work on campus into two kinds.

• Learning: research or service that is part of a course, a thesis or a graduation requirement is learning, not employment. So is service by students who receive the aid plan grant. The same rules apply to local, international, overseas compatriot, Hong Kong, Macau and mainland Chinese students. These students must also be covered by commercial insurance, matching the Labor Standards Act's occupational accident compensation.
• Employment: outside learning, if you do work for pay under someone's direction, it is employment. This includes research assistants, teaching assistants and temporary workers on research projects. Labor laws apply.
• Each school must have a way to settle disputes over whether work is employment, with student representatives taking part.

• Minimum wage in 2026 NT$29,500 a month, NT$196 an hour, from January 1, 2026.
• From January 1, 2027 The Minimum Wage Review Committee decided on NT$30,900 a month and NT$205 an hour, and sent it to the Executive Yuan for approval.

For international students, work has its own rules. → Work permits for students

Aid for international degree students

The government's main scholarship for international degree students is the Taiwan Scholarship. → Taiwan Scholarship

Universities also give their own scholarships. Each school sets its own amounts and rules, and changes them. The examples below are each school's own rules, in the version the school publishes. They are not national rules, and other schools have different ones.

Good to know: holding a school scholarship and a Taiwan government scholarship at the same time is usually not allowed. The Taiwan Scholarship rules allow one exception: a university tuition discount that covers fees above the MOE limit. NTU, NTHU and NCKU bar their scholarship holders from also holding Taiwan government scholarships, and Tunghai bars Taiwan Scholarship holders. Yuan Ze lets you apply for the difference if your government scholarship is smaller than its award.

NTHU's scholarship is not open to holders of a resident visa for business or employment, a work visa or a residence certificate, and NCKU's is not open to students with employment status on their ARC or a work visa. → Student visa · The resident certificate (ARC)

Questions

Can the private university reduction be combined with other fee reductions?

Not with another government fee reduction or subsidy, unless a rule says otherwise. It can be combined with the grant from the aid plan for students in hardship.

Do I need to apply for the NT$17,500 private university reduction?

No. Your school checks its enrollment records and takes it off at registration. It applies to Taiwanese bachelor's and associate degree students at private schools, within the normal length of study.

Do I pay interest on a student loan while I study?

No. From August 1, 2026, the government pays all the interest while you study. When you repay, your rate is 0.775%.

Can an international student hold a school scholarship and the Taiwan Scholarship?

Usually not. Most schools bar holders of Taiwan government scholarships, and the Taiwan Scholarship bars other Taiwan government or school aid, apart from a university tuition discount for fees above the MOE limit.

→ Costs and scholarships

Sources (30)

Checked November 2026.Show

Ministry of Education, 圓夢助學網: home, fee reductions, aid for students in hardship (with the June 30, 2026 plan), emergency relief, student loans, loan relief measures, private university reduction. Regulations: low-income and middle-to-low-income students, students with disabilities, Indigenous students, families in special circumstances, surviving dependants, children of active-duty military, private university reduction, student loan regulations, student loan operating guidelines, guideline on student assistants. Bank of Taiwan student loan portal. Ministry of Labor, minimum wage and 2027 minimum wage decision; Executive Yuan. MOE Taiwan Scholarship directions. Schools: NTU, NTHU page and regulations, NCKU, NTUST, Tunghai, Yuan Ze, I-Shou.