HSINCHU, Taiwan, September 29, 2005 - UMC (NYSE: UMC; TSE: 2303), a world leading semiconductor foundry, today announced that it has agreed to sponsor a scholarship program to send outstanding technical students from leading Taiwan universities to New York's Polytechnic University for two years as part of their undergraduate engineering education. National Central University and National Chiao Tung University have already agreed to participate in the cooperative engineering education program, in which UMC will sponsor NT$500,000 a year per student as part of the scholarship to help cover their education expenses.

Dr Jackson Hu, CEO at UMC, said, "UMC has been actively involved in working with universities at both the local and international level to help cultivate the future talent of the high tech industry. We are pleased to continue our activities in this area with this new scholarship program to help Taiwan students extend their engineering education at Polytechnic University.

Founded in 1854, Polytechnic is the second oldest private engineering school in the United States. Their graduates and faculty include Nobel laureates, notable inventors, world class scientists and successful entrepreneurs. Polytechnic's reputation for excellence in education and research has led it to be ranked in the top ten percent of all colleges and universities in the United States by The Princeton Review.