Presenting the 2016 Awards for Theses and Dissertations on the Topic of Overseas Chinese Affairs on December 30, Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) Minister Wu Hsin-hsing stated that next year (2017) the OCAC will organize summer vacation Southeast Asia volunteers groups for Taiwan university students, provide financial assistance to students from poor families to travel to overseas compatriot communities to broaden their horizons, and will also build an overseas community school  and teacher staff matching  platform, so that Taiwanese youth can go out and see the world and also witness the results of the hard work of Taiwanese compatriotexpatriates overseas.
Wu mentioned that Chinese have been migrating around the world for hundreds of years and the experience overseas of every compatriot is a moving story as well as good material for overseas Chinese research. He said he is pleased to see domestic researchers and students involved in overseas Chinese research, through specialized academic study, exploring topics such as overseas Chinese migration, their effect on their place of residence, and their Taiwanese identity, providing in-depth viewpoints and future directions for reference of policy makers and thus assisting with the implementation of overseas compatriot work.   
Wu also stated that the OCAC has considered how to utilize overseas community resources to assist Taiwanese youth develop in developing and so next year will link up Taiwanese youth andwith overseas Chinese communities in three ways. First, domestic university students will be recruited to form volunteer groups that will provide service infor overseas compatriot communities in Southeast Asia in summer. Second, is a youth overseas bridge-building program, as part of which will be implemented to select students from poor families in Taiwan will be chosen to go out into the overseas community to learn. Third, is the building of an overseas Chinese school and teacher matching platform will be constructed to that will arrange for youth volunteers and graduates from Taiwan to go to work at overseas Chinese schools, easing their staff shortage and also helping facilitateing exchange of overseas and domestic educational talent.

The Awards for Theses and Dissertations on the Topic of Overseas Chinese Affairs have been presented by OCAC since 2004 to encourage study of overseas Chinese affairs at universities in Taiwan. To date nine doctorate theses and 62 master's dissertations have received the award. This year, one Ph.D. student and 10 master's students won the award, the winners from National Tsing Hua University, National Taiwan University, National Taiwan Normal University, National Chengchi University, National Chiao Tung University, National Hsinchu University of Education, and National Pingtung University respectively. Three of the winners are overseas compatriot students from Malaysia. The theses and dissertations covered topics such as overseas Chinese politics, Chinese education and overseas compatriot students, with the focus of study overseas Chinese in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, US, and New Zealand. Attending the ceremony, supervising professors Prof, Jiang Lan-hong and Assistant Professor Hong Bo-yi of the Department Geography, National Taiwan University, affirmed the Awards for providing important support to overseas Chinese and migration research and practice as well as being a platform for dialogue between academia and policy.

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