At a presentation held Friday at Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School, one of Taiwan's most prestigious boys' high schools, Hong Kong Polytechnic University offered a scholarship package that will provide each recipient a total of HK$480,000 (about US$62,112) in financial support.

The scholarship will include HK$80,000 for tuition and HK$40,000 for living expenses per year per student.

Laura Lo, the university's Chinese mainland affairs department chief, said at the presentation that hopefuls can apply based on their academic proficiency exam scores. As long as the applicants are outstanding enough, the school will offer them scholarships.

"There will be no quota restrictions," she said, adding that if there are many talented Taiwanese students, the school will increase the scholarship quota for Taiwanese students at the expense of those for students from other areas.

A similar presentation was also made at Taipei First Girls' Senior High School, said Lo, who added that the response from students at both schools has been enthusiastic.

HK$150,000 scholarship

Earlier this year, the University of Hong Kong also made presentations in Taipei, offering to give each qualified student a scholarship worth HK$150,000 per year for up to four years.

At the same time as Hong Kong's higher education institutions try to lure elite Taiwanese students, National Taiwan University Chief Secretary Liao Hsien-hao said his school has been actively recruiting foreign students in order to create a multicultural campus environment.

"We have been working hard to retain outstanding students in Taiwan. In addition to luring foreign students by offering scholarships, we have also been actively forging cooperative ties with famous foreign schools for student exchanges. Our goal is for one-third of our students to be able to study on foreign campuses as exchange students," Liao added.