Taiwan’s commanding stature in the global semiconductor industry risks leaching it of talent in “other areas of advantage”, both within the academy and in the broader community, according to the leader of the island’s leading university.
National Taiwan University (NTU) president Wen-Chang Chen said the nation’s dominance in semiconductor supply was a two-edged sword, driving international enrolments and industry engagement while jeopardising the “balance” needed for a well-rounded society.
Chen said NTU’s semiconductor degrees were “very popular” with locals and foreigners alike. Taiwan’s status as a “hometown for the semiconductor” lured students from Germany, Japan and the US for “specialised programmes” run in conjunction with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company – the world’s largest dedicated contract chip manufacturer and designer, controlling at least 70 per cent of the global market.
“We have to take advantage of these industrial [boom] periods to attract new talent from outside,” Chen told Times Higher Education. But as the semiconductor industry developed almost “too rapidly”, the university and broader society risked becoming skewed.
Chen said some social science and life science graduates were shifting into the semiconductor industry after graduation. “We have to be careful [about] that, because…you have to be balanced. We have to meet the needs of the semiconductor industry but we have to maintain other areas of advantage in the next few years. That’s a difficult job for Taiwan, and also for NTU.”
