The Ministry of Education yesterday outlined policies aimed at helping universities create “makerspaces” to promote entrepreneurship, exchange ideas, and teach students how to identify market needs and manage risks when launching their own businesses.
University students have submitted a total of 56,499 theses over the past year, while national universities have awarded about 200 medals for invention and innovation and students have received about 1,570 awards at international competitions, Deputy Minister of Education Chen Liang-gee (陳良基) told a Taipei news conference.
“It is a pity that most of theses and medals are simply hung on a wall without having any further action,” Chen said.
Photo: CNA, courtesy of the Ministry of Education
The policies are framed at promoting young talent and their ideas, which would aid national efforts to build an innovation-driven economy, he said.
The policies aim to guide students through entrepreneurial courses offered by universities that teach risk management based on empathy, thereby identifying the needs and challenges of the future, he said.
The ministry is to launch training courses for professors to cultivate the necessary skills to teach the courses, he said.
The ministry would assist universities in creating “makerspaces” to help students establish their goals and values, as well as accelerators where they can reaffirm the feasibility of their creations, watch their ideas take shape and solicit angel funds with the help of lecturers from the business sector, Chhe said.
To generate interest from academics, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the education ministry are considering amending the Fundamental Science and Technology Act (科學技術基本法) to lift restrictions that ban university professors from assuming positions, such as a startup company director and cap their ownership at 10 percent, he said.
The education and the science ministries have consulted with the Ministry of Economic Affairs over amendments to the Statute for Industrial Innovation (產業創新條例) to extend a five-year income tax exemption for university teaching staff who have ownership in a startup, he said.
Both proposed amendments have been delivered to the legislature for review, he said.
Chen said that the policies budget allocations depend on the legislature’s review of its budget proposals for next year.
Responding to media queries over what the difference was between the policies and a project overseen by the science ministry to bolster collaborations between industries and universities, the deputy minister said that a major difference is that the science ministry’s policies put an emphasis on “end results,” namely how the innovations effect society and the economy.
Innovative projects launched by universities in the past often focused on technology transfers, but the new policies aim to help create an environment where students can cultivate entrepreneurial skills and launch their own startups rather than sell their ideas, he said.
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