By Ho Ai Li, Taiwan Correspondent

TAIPEI: Will Taiwan's brightest make a beeline for top universities across the Strait, now that mainland China has opened its doors more widely?

This is an emerging concern in Taiwan after Beijing announced, at a high-level cross-strait forum over the weekend, that top Taiwanese students could now get a place in China's universities without having to take China's college-entry exam.

Taiwanese students who aced the island's own exams could be admitted into China's universities from as early as next month.

At the fifth Cross-Straits Economic, Trade and Culture Forum in Changsha, in central China's Hunan province, Beijing and Taipei put aside trade and held broad discussions on media, culture and education, resolving to step up links.

Previously, the forum - held by Taiwan's Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party - had focused mainly on dollars and cents. This time round, both sides agreed to look into allowing each other's media outlets to set up offices on the other side, as well as to work on a dictionary unifying the use of traditional and simplified Chinese script, among other things. Taiwan uses traditional Chinese characters, while China uses a simplified version.

But with officials high on rhetoric and short on specifics at the two-day forum, the concrete initiative of easier entry into colleges in China has grabbed headlines - and sparked fears of a brain drain in Taiwan.

Taiwan's United Daily News broadsheet and its sister paper, the Economic Daily News, which support engagement with China, both voiced concern about the possible exodus of talent.

In the headline of its editorial, the Economic Daily News warned, 'Don't ever fall for the Communists' secret ploy!' It noted Taiwan already suffers from a loss of talent, with its economy in a slump in the past decade.

An estimated one million Taiwanese, mainly businessmen and managerial talent, ply their trade in China.

If China dangles carrots like scholarships and lower fees, it would become more attractive for Taiwan's young people to study in China, said social science professor Chao Yung-mau at the National Taiwan University.

Currently, about 2,000 Taiwanese undergraduates and postgraduates head for China universities each year.

Taiwan, however, does not recognise degrees from China universities, due to opposition from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, as well as academic groups which fear competition from China.

In particular, the lesser known of Taiwan's 173 universities worry about losing students to competitors in China. As it is, their enrolments are already dropping due to Taiwan's falling birth rate.

Beijing's move to recognise Taiwan's college-entry exams has put more pressure on Taiwan to, in turn, recognise China degrees and let in China students. Taipei plans to allow China students to study at its universities from next year, but this still has to be approved by the Legislative Yuan.

Still, some feel that talk of an outflow of students from Taiwan to China is exaggerated. Some academics in Taiwan said that many bright Taiwanese students prefer to head for the United States or Europe instead.

More likely to be drawn to China are Taiwan's university lecturers, whose wage levels have stayed the same over the past decade while pay in China has risen quickly, Prof Chao told The Straits Times. He knows of two colleagues who have moved to China.

'If we don't have good teachers, we can't keep our good students,' he said.

hoaili@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The Straits Times.