Taipei, Nov. 6 (CNA) Representatives from five prestigious Taiwanese universities are touring Central and Eastern Europe to promote scholarships in semiconductor research aimed at attracting mathematics and physics talents in those regions to come to Taiwan to pursue further studies.
The academic delegation is made up of high-ranking officials from National Taiwan University (NTU), National Cheng Kung University, National Tsing Hua University, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, and National Sun Yat-sen University.
The tour has taken them to the Czech Republic, Poland, and Lithuania, where they held presentations about the Taiwan Semiconductor Scholarship Program for local students, according to NTU Vice President for International Affairs Professor Yuan Hsiao-wei (袁孝維), who is part of the delegation.
So far, the delegation has visited Masaryk University in the Czech Republic on Oct. 31, and the University of Warsaw in Poland on Nov. 2, as well as the Kaunas University of Technology on Nov. 3, and Vilnius University on Nov. 4, both of which are in Lithuania.
They will conclude their tour at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia on Nov. 7.
Yuan told CNA from Prague on Wednesday that the Soviet influence on Central and Eastern European countries helped their students excel in math and physics. The delegation has received positive feedback since its first scholarship presentation in Brno, the Czech Republic, on Oct. 31, she said.
According to Yuan, the idea of offering Central and Eastern European students scholarships for semiconductor research covering tuition fees, stipends, and flight tickets was suggested by the National Development Council following its visit to the Czech Republic in October 2021.
Information on the website of the Taiwan Semiconductor Scholarship Program shows that master's students enrolled in the program will each get a tuition fee subsidy of NT$80,000 (US$2,499) per academic year, a monthly stipend of NT$25,000, and a round-trip flight ticket to and from Taiwan.
Each master's student involved in the scholarship program will be sponsored for a maximum of two years, with the tuition subsidy, stipends, and round-trip ticket amounting to a total of no more than 27,000 euros (US$26,956).
As for the Ph.D. students in the program, in addition to the same amount of tuition fee reimbursement as master's students every year and a round-trip flight ticket, they will get NT$40,000 for their monthly stipend, the website writes.
The scholarship for Ph.D. students will be for up to four years and amount to 74,000 euros.
However, the number of the scholarships has not been finalized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which finances the program.
Despite their interest in the program, the European universities have expressed concerns that scholarship students would stay and work in Taiwan after graduation rather than foster semiconductor development in their home countries, Yuan said.
Not denying that possibility, Yuan said that these students can contribute at home if Taiwan invests in the semiconductor industries in their nations.
"The goal of the program," Yuan emphasized, "is to equip students with adequate know-how about chips and make them internationally competitive."
This program also marks a new step for Taiwan's tertiary education sector given that Taiwan's universities have never had this kind of cooperation with Central and Eastern Europe before, said Ding Shih-torng (丁詩同), the NTU vice president for academic affairs.
The cooperation is like a trial, through which the two sides will get to know each other's needs and see if there is potential for further cooperation, Ding said.
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