FAQ
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Q. How can you apply for financial support for the UMAP programs?
- A. For the Exchange Program A in Taiwan, a foreign student needs to obtain an admission to a Taiwanese university or college as an exchange student through the arrangement of UMAP program A/B before he or she can be considered as a candidate for the scholarship.
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Q. Can I select any of the universities listed under the UMAP Membership page as my top 5 desired universities for Programs A&B?
- A. You can only choose universities that are listed in the Program A&B page for your top 5 universities. Additionally, in order to apply, you must first check the Program A&B page for whether your university is currently participating in our programs or not. If your university is listed in the following page, you may then apply for the exchange program by going through the following procedures. Note that you can not directly send your applications to the UMAP International Secretariat. Please submit your applications to your home university.
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Q. Are tuition fees charged for the UMAP exchange program?
- A. Program A: Exchange students will not be subjected to fees for examinations, admission and tuition at the host university. Nevertheless, tuition fee should still be paid to the home university upon request. Students should consult the coordinator of their home university for details.
Program B: As this is a bilateral student exchange, tuition fee exemption or reduction depends on the negotiation between the home and host university. Students should consult their home university coordinator for more information.
Program C: Depending on the university, tuition fees may be charged or waived for students coming from UMAP affiliated universities. Most programs charge tuition, but there are some for which tuition is waived. Students should consult with relevant university coordinators for details.
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Q. What are the scholarships offered by UMAP?
- A. Scholarships from UMAP, which are offered by the Ministry of Education,Taiwan, and MEXT, Japan, are mainly for Program A. To apply for the scholarship from Taiwan, a student must first be admitted to a Taiwanese university or college as an international exchange student through UMAP Program A/B. Details about scholarships from Japan will be shared with you by the host university once approved by JASSO. Announcements about who can apply (and how to apply) will be posted on the UMAP website during each application cycle.
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Q. Does the UMAP scholarship grant plane tickets and housing?
- A. UMAP does not currently grant students with plane tickets or housing fees. Students are asked to cover these expenses themselves.
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Q. Can you receive alternative financial supports when joining UMAP programs?
- A. Depending on the negotiation between your home university and the host university, you may be able to receive scholarships or tuition fee exemptions/ reductions for your exchange. Participating universities may make arrangements to fund bilateral exchanges, taking into account such matters as maintenance of scholarship benefits, eligibility for government funding assistance, and health care costs.
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Q. Where should you submit the application form for Programs A,B,C?
- A. Submit your application to the UMAP coordinator at your home university. Once you are confirmed as an applicant by your home university/institution, your UMAP coordinator will nominate you by sending your application form to the UMAP International Secretariat. Please do not send your application directly to UMAP International Secretariat.
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Q. Are graduate students eligible to apply for UMAP programs?
- A. Yes, as long as they are currently enrolled in one of UMAP’s participating universities and will not be graduating from their home university before the end of the exchange period. Please check the details on the Programs A/B page for which universities offer graduate programs.
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Q. When does the application period start?
- A. Details about the application period will be listed in the “Timeline of Program A&B” document for the application period of each cycle. The document will be located in the News page before each application cycle. This information will also be posted on the UMAP Facebook page, so please like the page to be one of the first people to hear about our news.
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Q. I have been nominated by my home university to the UMAP International Secretariat. However, I have yet to receive any result or confirmation from the host university. What should I do?
- A. Please be patient! The “Timeline of Program A&B” document on the News page, has details on when you can expect to be notified about results. How the process works is, after collecting all the applications, UMAP IS will nominate everyone to his/her first preferred university. The host university will respond to the results of the screening during the “Notification of Acceptance” period as indicated in the document. If you do not receive the results by the date listed in the Timeline of Program A&B, please contact UMAP IS.
FAQs for UMAP Members
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Q. How can you join UMAP?
- A. Please follow procedures to become UMAP member from link below.
Join UMAP
Once you become our member, you can offer Program A/B/C from our member page. (Only UMAP member can sign in to our member page.) Also, Students in your university become eligible to apply for our exchange programs.
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Q. What are advantages of becoming a UMAP member?
- UMAP’s broad variety of study abroad programs meet the diverse needs of students and future employers. In the future, UMAP plans to make practical learning opportunities, including internships, available to students. UMAP’s interconnectedness policy allows for the increase in mutual trust and quality assurance among numerous universities. Furthermore, the UMAP Credit Transfer Scheme (UCTS) enables students to confidently participate in a variety of quality student exchange programs. UMAP has an open organization (membership) and an open platform comprising governments, associations of universities, consortia of universities, and individual universities. This provides opportunities that extend well beyond those offered by bilateral agreements. Any country or territory in the Asia-Pacific region is eligible to become a full member of UMAP and participate in UMAP exchange programs. This gives students and faculty members unparalleled access to an incredible diversity of cultures, peoples, histories, and opportunities.
There are also scholarships offered by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, and Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT).
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Q. How do students apply for the exchange program?
- A. The following are the two steps needed to apply for the exchange program:
1. The student completes the application form for the desired program and submits it to the UMAP coordinator at his/her home university/institution. The application form can be downloaded from the link below.
Procedure of Application
2. The UMAP coordinator will collect the submitted applications and send them all together to the UMAP International Secretariat by email. The coordinators will then register the information on each application at the Google Form which will be announced by UMAP IS.
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Q. Can a member university immediately send outbound students if they have already signed the Pledge of Agreement?
- A. No. Your university must first complete and send the “Outline of Proposals” to the UMAP International Secretariat during the ‘Call for Proposals’ period. UMAP International Secretariat will issue a call for programs to member universities through the website’s News page and via email. Please fill in the form and send it to UMAP IS in order to be able to send outbound students.
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Q. How does an UMAP member apply to offer a program?
- A. UMAP affiliated universities can download and complete the application form from the link below. (Only UMAP members can sign in to our member page.) Once you completed the application form, send it to the UMAP International Secretariat (umap-is@umap.org).
Offer Program
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Q. Does UMAP provide funds for students or staff exchanges?
- A. Yes. UMAP provided scholarships for students who participated in the SSTP in 2016. Information concerning the scholarship in 2017 will be updated in the News section of our website. UMAP also has a grant called UMAP Research Net (URN), which provides funds to joint research projects conducted by researchers from UMAP affiliated universities.
In several UMAP countries/territories, governments fund national UMAP programs. Participating universities may also make arrangements to fund bilateral exchanges, taking into account such matters as maintenance of scholarship benefits, eligibility for government funding assistance, and health care costs.
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Q. What are the requirements for sending exchange students?
- A. The following are the required steps for sending outbound students:
1. The country/territory of the university/institution must first be a current Full Member of UMAP. (Note: Only a country/territory which has a UMAP National Secretariat (UMAP NS) that pays the membership fee is considered a Full Member. If your country/territory is not a Full Member, please consider establishing a UMAP NS in your country/territory. For more information or to discuss how UMAP IS can support this process, please contact us.
2. The University/Institution which is going to participate in UMAP Program must sign the “Pledge of Agreement”.
3. The university/institution which has participated in Program A&B by submitting, or having previously submitted, the Outline of Proposal is eligible to send its students to other participating universities. - (Note: Even though a university has joined Program A&B, it does not necessarily mean that the university must receive two exchange students each semester (for example, in cases such as when no applicants have applied to that particular university)).
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Q. How many students can we send each semester?
- A. 1. Please refer to Article 2 in “The Pledge of Agreement”: The selection of exchange students will be subject to the authority and discretion of each host university. The maximum number of inbound and outbound exchange students for each university will not exceed two (2) per semester (Program A). Nevertheless, regardless of Article 2, in the case that the university has previously accepted more than the maximum number of two inbound exchange students for Program A, extra ‘quotas’ will be given to the university to send more outbound students (equivalent of that previously received) in any of the following semesters.
2. The provisions of the preceding two paragraphs shall not preclude bilateral agreements made between any two (2) participating universities that hope to exchange more students (Program B: UMAP Bilateral Student Exchange Program (UBE)). Note that conditions have to be negotiated between the two universities. Once the agreement has been made, the universities must inform UMAP IS.
3. The count of one year should be based on the UMAP Program year, not the academic year of each participating universities. For example, “Program A&B 2017-1” is an exchange student program starting from Fall 2017 and “Program A&B 2017-2” is one for Spring 2018. Together, “Program A&B 2017-1” and “Program A&B 2017-2” constitute one year as UMAP offers Programs two times per year.
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Q. If my university had previously signed a contract with UMAP many years ago, is it necessary to renew the agreement if we want to participate again?
- A. The previous agreement is still in effect even if there has been a change in the International Secretariat. Nevertheless, please contact the UMAP IS or check the Signed Participating Universities page to determine whether or not your university’s current copy is still applicable. We may ask you to resubmit the previously signed Pledge of Agreement again depending on the situation. If your university would like to renew the agreement, feel free to also contact the UMAP IS.
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Q. Are there restrictions on the number of programs (Programs A,B, and C) that we can offer in each round of applications?
- A. Regarding Program C, there is no limit for the number of programs. As for Program A&B, it is up to you whether you would like to offer special programs only for international exchange students and/or regular programs which some of your faculties offer to regular students. We ask that you explain the offered programs as part of the “Outline of Proposals”.
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Q. Are graduate students eligible to apply for UMAP programs?
- A. Yes. Based on the Pledge of Agreement, all participating exchange students should be enrolled in a UMAP participating university. As long as the graduate student meets that requirement, he/she is eligible to apply for applicable programs. Please check the contents of each program to see which universities offer graduate studies.
- Although program overview indicates that students whose ages are between 18-23 years old as of April 1st, 2017 can apply for this program, over 23-year-old students from UMAP universities are also eligible to apply if there are extra vacancies
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Q. Do universities have to pay to participate in student exchange programs?
- A. Depending on a country’s/territory’s National Secretariat, which pays the membership fee, universities may be able to join without any additional payments. Please contact the NS of your country/territory for more information.
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Q. When do we need to submit the Outline of Proposals?
- A. During each cycle, UMAP IS sends an email to each university’s UMAP coordinator asking for proposals of programs. Please check the “Timeline of Program A&B” document on the News page for details.
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Q. After the agreement has been signed, what programs can we participate in?
- A. You can participate in any and all UMAP programs as long as you follow the conditions stated in the Pledge of Agreement
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Q. Is there a possibility that our student will not get admitted to his/her desired university?
- A. Unfortunately, there is a possibility that a student may not be admitted to his/her first priority institution. This is because a university may only accept up to two students per semester. When the number of applicants exceeds two, it is up to the host university’s discretion to select which student(s) they will accept. Other students may be declined even though they may meet the requirements. Students can choose five universities on the application. If a student is declined by his/her first choice, we will nominate him/her to his/her second or third priority (even fourth and fifth). However, there may be cases in which all of the student’s desired spots have been occupied by other students because of the popularity of the universities. In this case, we will inform you of the situation along with vacancy information so that the student can re-submit the application. We will support the matching of student and host as much as possible.
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Q. Can a student postpone his/her exchange to the next cycle?
- A. Please contact the host university directly regarding this matter. If they approve of the postponement, then the postponement will be accepted. Note that you will still need to notify UMAP IS if there is a postponement.
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Q. How do we send students to Program B, and how many students can we send?
- A. 1. As Program B is a bilateral exchange, you need to communicate directly with the host university to negotiate the conditions, such as the tuition fee, and make an agreement. It will be up to each host university to determine whether or not they will waive the tuition.
2. If you nominate more than two students, UMAP IS will request you provide their priority. Based on this, UMAP IS will then nominate them either Program A or Program B to each host universities. The host university will contact you to discuss the conditions.
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Q. How long is the term of the membership?
- A. There is no termination of membership unless the member decides to withdraw from UMAP.
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Q. How do you apply for Research Net?
- A. A call for proposals will be made. Please apply by submitting a proposal. Only groups of two or more researchers from UMAP affiliated universities who share common research interests are eligible to submit the proposals. Up to four projects a year will be selected and provided with research funds from UMAP. You can see the application schedule and also download the application form from here.
Research net
