Making "innovation" its calling card, Far East University has met with great success in recent years, winning prizes at major international invention shows and raising the campus's profile and reputation in Taiwan. The photo shows FEU students who have won international prizes over the past two years, along with their inventions. The invention tree behind them includes a record of the international achievements of FEU faculty and students for several years more. (Jimmy Lin)

For the last decade or so, con-fronted with the double whammy of lower birthrates and a growing number of competitors, universities have begun to see a shortage of students. The situation is particularly gloomy on the Jia-nan Plain, where the number of private universities is particularly large. In some departments at Toko University, Leader University, Taiwan Shoufu- University, and the Hsing Kuo University of Management, students aren't enrolled at even 10% of capacity. The Department of Knowledge Management at Aletheia University's Ma-dou Campus hoped for 30 new students this year but enrolled only one.

With several private universities in the area contemplating closure, Far East University stands out as a true exception. Located at Xin-shi in Tainan County, the 41-year-old FEU set a new institutional record for enrollment (rising this year from 7911 to 9058, or 102% of "full" enrollment). And with regard to the joint entrance examination for four-year institutes of technology and two-year junior colleges, FEU's lowest score for admittance jumped by more than 100 points, placing it in the top third of private technical universities.

As far as people in education are concerned, FEU's outstanding performance is hardly surprising: It has, after all, earned a great deal of media exposure for outshining highly re-garded national public universities with engineering schools (such as NTU, Tsing Hua, Chiao Tung, and Cheng Kung) at invention fairs. Far East's faculty and students have obtained 1377 patents (and counting). That's more than any other university in Taiwan.

How has FEU managed to "invent" its road to success, turning a mediocre institution into a creative powerhouse?

"All of you have surely tried pearl tea! It was invented about 30 years ago by the Chun Shui Tang Teahouse in Tai-chung. [Editor's note: others say that Tai-nan's Han-lin Teahouse was its originator.] Bringing together cream, black tea and tapioca balls, pearl tea employs the method of integration, which is very important in creativity theory. By combining product type A and product type B, two things that may seem incompatible, you can successfully design product C, which belongs to neither of the earlier types."

At a weekly meeting held by Far East's Invention Society, Chen Yu-gang, director of the Innovation and Creativity Center, was explaining how students can use the simple methods of observation and mental association in everyday life to get their creative juices flowing. In addition to pearl tea, there are many other examples of seemingly unrelated objects being combined. Take, for instance, chicken eggs and calculators. Now common, egg calculators put calculator buttons on an egg-shaped case.

Sony's VAIO Mouse Talk, which merges a Skype Internet phone with a mouse, is another example. By integrating two features, the product conserves space on one's desktop. Sales have been good.