Taiwan universities plan to admit mainland students for the first time next year, a Taiwan official said yesterday.

Students from 41 mainland universities recognized by Taiwan authorities are expected to start enrolling as early as next year, island-based United Daily quoted Taiwan's "education minister" Wu Ching-ji as saying.

Taiwan universities can offer up to 2 percent of their available places to mainland students.

The plan followed talks between the mainland and Taiwan last year, when they inked deals to forge closer trade ties and agreed to promote educational exchanges.

However, Taiwan will not admit mainland students who study medicine, including Western and traditional Chinese medicine, Wu said.

The decision was reached after research and discussion with Taiwan's health authority, he said.

He also noted that Taiwan would not recognize the teacher training certification of Beijing Normal University and East China Normal University, which are among the 41 mainland universities.

"We have six or seven Taiwan students enrolled to study Western medicine every year," a teacher at the Peking University Health Science Center, surnamed Li, told China Daily yesterday.

"I heard one Taiwan girl who graduated from our university last year got a job in a hospital in Fujian province," she said.

"Many of them prefer to work in the mainland, and a few will further their studies abroad," she said.

A teacher at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, surnamed Ji, said Taiwan students' passion to study traditional Chinese medicine on the mainland never fades.

"Though the policy in Taiwan is not flexible for medical students, our university still has 266 undergraduate students from Taiwan studying right now," she told China Daily yesterday.

Li Zhu, the chief of EIC, a university application agency, said that their Guangzhou-based institution had launched a program to help mainland students apply for further education in Taiwan next year.

"Our marketing research nationwide shows positive feedback about this program," he told China Daily yesterday.

The tuition fee in Taiwan would be a little lower for mainland students than Hong Kong universities, he added.

Mainland universities began to enroll Taiwan students in 2006. At present 6,755 Taiwan students are studying in 187 universities on the mainland.