Tsai graduated from
National Taiwan Normal University with a bachelor's degree in biology. She then earned a master's degree in natural resource management from
Ohio State University and a
Ph.D. in geography from
National Taiwan University in 1999. Her doctoral dissertation was titled, "An Analysis of Landscape Transformation on Kinmen Island, Taiwan" (Chinese: 島嶼環境變遷研究-金門島地景型塑與轉化分析). ==References==