To begin with, I was not sure which country to pick to pursue my research. It was then that I came across one of my seniors from Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, who was pursuing his doctorate in Taiwan. He referred to it as the hub of researchers which helped me to make up my mind to study here. I wanted to work on something which had relevance in the industrial and academic sectors. My research work focussed on integrating plasmonics with 2D-materials for energy applications.
My adviser (guide) professor Ta-Jen Yen offered complete financial support to my work. He started with giving valuable suggestions and gave a set direction to the research.
I came to Taiwan in 2014 and enroled in National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), which offered a scholarship of NTD 10,000/per month, including a complete tuition fee waiver. The University which was placed at 226th place in Times Higher Education ranking and 151 at World University Rankings was by any standards one of the best picks. It is mandatory for international students to learn basic Mandarin. Those who want to opt for advanced courses can take up courses at the Chinese Language Centre. The biggest difference between researches in India and Taiwan is in the quality.
Taiwan is way too advanced in terms of researches, instrumentation and paper publication. We have free access to most advanced instruments and the researchers are given a free hand to work as per their interest. In Taiwan, it is easy for a doctoral student to get a license for the advanced and expensive instruments.
While in India, students cannot access most machines, which at times poses to be a major constraint. In Taiwan, researches are time bound and most are based on the industry requirement. Most companies monitor the research work and willing to recruit the right candidates.
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