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 ����Vlog. But as the semiconductor industry developed almost “too rapidly”, the university and broader society risked becoming skewed.

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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.”

The allure of semiconductor-related careers also risked NTU’s standing as a “very comprehensive” university with 16 colleges in areas including liberal arts, law, public health and general education. Technology professionals “need liberal arts to make them happy”, Chen said. “You cannot just work. You have to have life quality.”

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Policy approaches at NTU can affect the entire university sector, given the institution’s standing in the nation. All five Taiwanese presidents who have been directly elected by the citizenry, from Lee Teng-hui in 1996 to incumbent Lai Ching-te in 2024, are NTU alumni.

Although the institution consistently tops the Taiwan leaderboard in global university league tables, its improvements in the rankings often coincide with better ratings for other institutions elsewhere on the island – a point Chen emphasises when approaching non-alumni for philanthropic support. “If you make a donation, you not only donate to NTU. [You] also donate to Taiwan.”

The university functions as the “thinktank for Taiwan”, Chen said, and its educational innovations – often encouraging interdisciplinary study – are frequently adopted by other institutions.  topped the Outstanding Support for Students category at the THE Awards Asia 2025. Management and law students benefit from learning about new technologies, Chen explained, while semiconductor or electrical engineering students benefit from knowledge about finance or liberal arts.

Taiwan risks diluting its “edge” in the semiconductor industry by bringing in international students, necessitating careful protection of intellectual property, Chen concedes. But foreign students can stay and help buttress the workforce in an island with retreating demographics. Taiwan is classed as a “super-aged” society where more than one in five people are aged over 65. The population peaked in 2019 and the nation reportedly has the world’s lowest fertility rate.

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Foreign students who go home after graduating can also benefit the island by working in Taiwanese companies’ overseas subsidiaries, Chen said. At the very least, they take goodwill with them. “If they…learn from Taiwan, they have Taiwan pride in their minds. That is beneficial for both sides.”

Mainland Chinese students, however, are an exception. Only about 100 of NTU’s 6,000-odd international students come from the People’s Republic, Chen said. The cross-strait flow of students was suspended by both sides in 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, and the mainlanders now studying in the island’s universities are generally postgraduates who progressed from bachelor’s degrees commenced there last decade.

Chinese students are likewise shunning the US, in a world blighted by geopolitics and global competition, Chen noted. “We should…respect cultural difference,” he said. “If we respect that, the world will be more peaceful.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com