Every American school in this guide, in Hsinchu and across Taiwan, requires a foreign passport. For a Taiwanese family that wants an English-medium, internationally oriented education but holds only ROC nationality, that requirement closes most of the door. Hsinchu International Academy is the answer to exactly that situation. As the school states plainly, Taiwanese students do not need a second passport to attend, because HIA is not a foreign school but a Taiwanese experimental education institute, a legal category created for education that runs outside the regular school system.
That status is the entire basis of the school. HIA delivers an international curriculum in English to grades 7 through 12, taught toward universities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and beyond, and its graduates earn two credentials: a diploma issued by the school and a Certificate of Completion of Experimental Education at the senior high level, issued by the Hsinchu County Government and recognized as equivalent to a high school diploma. That second credential keeps the door to Taiwanese universities open as well, so a family does not have to choose between an international path and a domestic one at the age of twelve.
The honest counterweight is youth. HIA opened in 2022, which means it is still building its track record rather than resting on one. A family choosing it is choosing the model, the backing, and the people, and accepting that the school's first graduates are only now completing the journey. We lay out below what that youth does and does not tell you.
A school founded in 2022 has no graduating record to point to, and that would be a serious concern if HIA were a standalone venture. It is not. HIA is part of the STAR Korrnell Education Group, founded in 2007, which also runs Korrnell Academy, a kindergarten, and other schools, and its founder, Dr. Johnson Huang, also founded the Ton-Yen Healthcare Group and its regional teaching hospital in Zhubei. The new school sits on a seasoned institutional foundation, with the resources and operating experience of a group that has been educating Hsinchu children for over a decade.
What that backing buys, in practice, is a school that arrived fully formed rather than improvised. From the start HIA has run as a WASC-accredited institution with a purpose-built, technology-rich campus, a 1-to-1 MacBook program, dedicated English-language support, college counseling, and a full co-curricular life. These are the systems a young school often takes years to assemble, present here from the early years because the group already knew how to build them.
Our reading for families: HIA carries the opportunity and the uncertainty of any new school, but the uncertainty is smaller than its 2022 founding date alone suggests, because the institution behind it is not. A family should weigh the thin graduating record honestly, and weigh the experience of the group behind the school alongside it.
Hsinchu International Academy was co-founded in 2022 by Dr. Jack Huang and Dr. Jase Lau, under the STAR Korrnell Education Foundation. It is the newest school in the STAR Korrnell Education Group, which was founded in 2007 by Dr. Johnson Huang and also includes Korrnell Academy, Korrnell Kindergarten, and other institutions. Dr. Johnson Huang is also the founder of the Ton-Yen Healthcare Group, whose Ton-Yen General Hospital opened in Zhubei in 1995.
That lineage shapes the school's stated philosophy. The group's guiding idea, in its own framing, is that just as a hospital exists to heal, a good school exists to shape future generations, a civic-mission framing that runs through HIA's emphasis on what it calls Life Education alongside academics. The school sits in Zhubei, the residential area beside Hsinchu Science Park, placing it within reach of the same international and returnee families the other Zhubei schools serve.
HIA opened to grades 7 through 12 as a Taiwanese experimental education institute, a status authorized by the Hsinchu County Education Bureau, and achieved accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. It operates as a College Board testing center for IELTS, the SAT, and AP examinations, and runs on an international school calendar from mid-August to mid-June.
HIA teaches an American-referenced international curriculum in English across grades 7 to 12, with Advanced Placement courses, dedicated English-language support, and Chinese language and culture integrated throughout.
The program is built around a middle school and a high school division, taught in English and aimed at preparation for universities worldwide. Advanced Placement courses are part of the upper-grade offering, and the school operates as a College Board testing center for the SAT, PSAT, AP, and IELTS, so students can sit those examinations on their own campus. The school runs a 1-to-1 MacBook program, with every student working on a managed device, reflecting a digitally oriented approach to learning and research.
Because HIA enrolls many students whose first language is not English, dedicated English as an Additional Language support is a core part of the program, with specialist staff and language development aligned to recognized standards. Chinese language and culture are integrated rather than dropped, which suits the school's Taiwanese and bilingual families, and the curriculum is paired with what the school calls Life Education, its framing for the personal and character development that runs alongside the academics.
One structural point matters for planning. HIA spans grades 7 to 12 only, with no elementary division, so it is a school a family joins at middle or high school rather than one a child grows up in from the early years. Qualified students can enter at any grade where space exists, though the school encourages joining by Grade 7 to give a student the fullest run at building an academic foundation before the university-facing years.
HIA is too new to have an established results record, and we say so plainly rather than dressing youth as achievement. Here is what that does and does not mean for a family.
A school that opened in 2022 has only just begun graduating students, so there is no multi-year record of AP score distributions, university matriculations, or graduate destinations to examine, because there has not yet been time for one to form. This is not a gap the school is hiding; it is simply the arithmetic of a new institution. Any claim of a long, proven track record at a school this young would be a warning sign, and HIA does not make one.
What a family can assess instead is everything that precedes a results record: the accreditation, which HIA holds from WASC; the credential structure, which is clear and county-recognized; the backing of a group with operating experience; the quality of the teaching and counseling, which a visit and conversations with current families can reveal; and the university counseling the school provides. For a new school, those inputs are the honest basis for a decision, and they are what we would encourage a family to examine closely, in place of outcomes that do not exist yet.
HIA's admissions carry the feature that defines the school: it is open to Taiwanese nationals, with no foreign-passport requirement, which sets it apart from every foreign school in this guide.
Based on the school's published profile, its legal status, and its youth. HIA fills a specific gap in Hsinchu, and the fit follows directly from that.
Harland works with Hsinchu families remotely, with the same 1-on-1 teaching we provide in Taipei. For HIA students, our role is the English foundation, the academic depth, and the university years.
In Hsinchu, the first question is not which school is best but which schools your family is eligible to attend. These three sit at the other points of that map.
A consultation with our Student Coordinator is the fastest way to think the decision through with someone who is not trying to sell you the school. We work with Hsinchu families remotely, and we can talk through what to look for in a new school, how the experimental-education credential works, or how HIA compares with the other Hsinchu schools your family is eligible for. We start by listening.