Two top universities are to continue providing national defense undergraduate programs, despite low enrollment rates that prompted the Ministry of National Defense to cancel its involvement.
National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) has eight students — studying electrical engineering, computer science and life sciences — in its program.
NTHU academic affairs dean Wu Yung-hsien (巫勇賢) on Saturday said that its program would build “a supply chain of talent” for defense technology.
Photo courtesy of National Tsing Hua University
The program would facilitate cooperation between the university, the ministry, and research and development institutions, while training a new generation of military officials, Wu said.
National Cheng Kung University academic affairs dean Shen Sheng-chih (沈聖智) said that national universities have a responsibility to cultivate defense talent.
“The program not only helps attract high-quality students to one of the top universities in the country, but it also gives students the opportunity to contribute what they have learned at university to national security research and development institutions,” Shen said.
“We are still committed to allocating resources to the program even though not many students are enrolled in it. The most important thing is that students are high-quality,” Shen said.
Undergraduate programs for national defense started in the 2020-2021 academic year through partnerships between the ministry and the two universities, as well as National Taiwan University, National Chengchi University, National Sun Yat-Sen University, National Central University, National Chung Hsin University and National Taipei University.
Students seeking to enroll in the programs had to be new high-school graduates. While studying, they were obligated to undertake military training every Saturday, and during summer and winter vacations.
In addition to a complete waiver of tuition and fees, students in the program each received NT$5,000 per semester for books and supplies, and a NT$12,000 monthly stipend.
Graduates were recruited as second lieutenants by the military and were obligated to serve for at least five years. The purpose of the program was to recruit high-quality talent for the military and boost the defense industry’s autonomous capabilities.
The ministry also recruits students at public and private university for its Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC).
While the ministry recruited 213 people from the undergraduate program, enrollment rates were typically about 50 percent of capacity, prompting lawmakers to ask the ministry to evaluate the program.
Lee Meng-shan (李孟珊), section chief of Ministry of Education’s Department of Higher Education, said that the defense ministry canceled the program last year, but the education ministry would be willing to work with the defense ministry to resume the program.
Former Shih Chien University president Chen Chen-kui (陳振貴) said that the NTHU model might be a solution to the technical issues facing many institutions that were part of the defense ministry’s program.
“Defense and education officials must seek solutions through cross-departmental meetings. They should not judge the program’s effectiveness by the numbers,” Chen said.
Chin Han-chung (秦漢忠), director of the military training office and deputy dean of students affairs at Chung Yuan Christian University, said that the program was an upgraded version of the ROTC.
Recruiting university students for the ROTC is more difficult than it was for the canceled program, because they could quit if they found they could not adapt to the requirements, Chin said.
The undergraduate program recruited students fresh out of high school, who had a better chance of being determined to pursue careers in the military, he said.
An expert who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the defense ministry’s cancelation of the program might have been related to its emphasis on lineage and ethics.
Students who graduate from top universities and are “air dropped” into the military do not find it easy to adapt, the expert said.
However, the program helped to cultivate top talent for diverse research and leadership roles in the armed forces, they said.
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