Query about Finances of Graduate Education in East Asia

Blog regular Joshua Harwood writes:

I am interested in the financial details of graduate programs in Chinese philosophy, in East Asia. Taiwan (where I am now) offers some scholarship assistance for those who enroll in Chinese graduate programs, which includes living stipends, etc., but I know that such assistance differs by major, and the details of the program are not crystal-clear to me.

I’ve saved some money, but doubt that I’ll ever meet the tuition demands of most US universities, and so I decided long ago that I would prefer to study in an East Asian graduate program. I’m probably nearing the time to begin my admissions process, and I would appreciate any helpful resources (in Chinese or English) which might help me focus my decisions.

If it helps, my primary interests in Chinese philosophy are Yang Zhu, pre-Han Chinese metaethics, and 命. For non-Chinese-specific topics, I’m most interested in formal logic, especially the connection of formal languages to natural languages, and mathematical logic.

I’m sure we’d all benefit from any thoughts or advice.

6 replies on “Query about Finances of Graduate Education in East Asia”

  1. You know right that if you do a PhD at a good program in the US, you don’t pay a cent? In fact, they pay you a modest stipend, usually in return for some teaching which is very very good experience.

    • I’ve heard of full-ride deals with living stipends for different Ph.D. programs (chemistry and computer science, personally), but not so many for philosophy.

      I recently read through the program that Nanyang offers (http://philosophy.hss.ntu.edu.sg/Pages/OurProgramme.aspx), and while I love the idea of working with Chenyang Li and writing something in the philosophy of science end of logical inference, the effective mapping of Western-standard metaethical divisions to Warring States figures, etc., I got little financial information on the scholarships that the HSS provides. That makes sense if the program is new. After I scoured the scholarship links, it appears that their listed scholarships are geared toward their MBA and science programs.

    • My understanding might possibly be out-of-date, but I think you’ll find that at least for the many philosophy programs in which you’re admitted to the PhD program straightaway (rather than first being in a master’s program, and then having to reapply for PhD programs), all admitted students are given one form or another of teaching or research assistantship, as Esther says. I believe this will be tru for many or even all top programs.

      As for financial support at Nanyang, I recommend getting in touch with Chenyang directly. The message he sent to me says that there is generous financial assistance, and I expect that this applies to the philosophy program.

  2. (As Joshua will notice, there continues to be delay in posting his replies while his comments are held up for moderation by the spam robot. Our apologies to Joshua.)

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