Taipei, March 6 (CNA) A welcome ceremony was held at National Taiwan University (NTU) Wednesday for the first group of 30 students participating in an industry-academic program to develop semiconductor talent in the German state of Saxony.

The Semiconductor Talent Incubation Program Taiwan will see students from German universities spend a semester studying in Taiwan followed by a two-month internship at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) fab in Taichung.

The program is a joint initiative of TSMC, the Saxony state government and TU Dresden.

At Wednesday's ceremony, NTU's Vice President of International Affairs Yuan Hsiao-wei (袁孝維) said the university was setting up a model for future collaboration between German and Taiwanese universities.

In addition to classes related to semiconductors, the multinational group from three German universities will also have the option to take Chinese-language lessons, Yuan said.

Yuan added that the students would also have opportunities to join events introducing them to Taiwanese culture.

One of the students enrolled in the program, Ananya Mukherjee, a 25-year-old graduate student of nanoelectronic systems at TU Dresden, told CNA she was a software engineer in India before pursuing her master's degree in Germany.

"A senior [in my college] was working at TSMC and introduced me to the semiconductor industry," she said.

"TSMC is everyone's dream for anyone in the microelectronics and electronics industry," she said when asked whether she would like to work at TSMC after completing the degree. "The internship [of the program] is going to be really helpful."

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Weronika Anna Woronko, a 24-year-old Polish chemistry major at TU Dresden, said she applied for the Semiconductor Talent Incubation Program Taiwan because of her interest in the semiconductor industry and the chance to intern at TSMC.

"The courses of the program, which I think are more practical than what I had in Germany, will prepare me well for the internship," she said.

Max Martin Paulenz, a 22-year-old German engineering student, said he previously came to Taiwan in 2023 for a one-month Taiwan experience education program at National Taiwan Normal University, but this time "the main reason is TSMC."

"I'm really excited about the technologies they innovate, so that's the main reason for me to come back," Paulenz said.

Paulenz said he would love to work for TSMC, whether in Dresden or Taiwan.

The state of Saxony provides students enrolled in the program with subsidies for living expenses and travel, but the tuition is waived, according to NTU's Yuan.

NTU is charging only administrative fees this time for this pilot project, but starting next year, the students will be charged the same tuition as other international students, Yuan said.

TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, announced in August 2023 that it would invest up to 3.499 billion euros (US$3.641 billion) in a joint venture to build a semiconductor fab in Dresden, Germany with investment partners Bosch, Infineon Technologies and NXP Semiconductors.