National Taiwan University (NTU; ) is a public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as the seventh of the

Imperial Universities The were founded by the Empire of Japan between 1886 and 1939, seven in Mainland Japan (now Japan), one in Korea under Japanese rule (now the Republic of Korea) and one in Taiwan under Japanese rule (now Taiwan). They were run by the imperia ...

. It was named Taihoku Imperial University and served during the period of Japanese colonization. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Ta ...

(KMT) government assumed the administration of the university. The

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

reorganized and renamed the university to its current name on November 15, 1945, with its roots of liberal tradition from

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charte ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

by former NTU President Fu Ssu-nien. The university consists of 11 colleges, 56 departments, 133 graduate institutes, about 60 research centers, and a school of professional education and continuing studies. Notable alumni include

Tsai Ing-Wen Tsai Ing-wen (; born 31 August 1956) is a Taiwanese politician serving as president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) since 2016. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Tsai is the first female president of Taiwan. She served as ...

, current

President of the Republic of China The president of the Republic of China, now often referred to as the president of Taiwan, is the head of state of the Republic of China (ROC), as well as the commander-in-chief of the Republic of China Armed Forces. The position once had ...

, former presidents

Lee Teng-hui Lee Teng-hui (; 15 January 192330 July 2020) was a Taiwanese statesman and economist who served as president of the Republic of China (Taiwan), President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) under Constitution of the Republic of China, the 1947 C ...

Chen Shui-bian Chen Shui-bian (; born 12 October 1950) is a retired Taiwanese politician and lawyer who served as the president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2000 to 2008. Chen was the first president from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) whic ...

and

Ma Ying-jeou Ma Ying-jeou ( zh, 馬英九, born 13 July 1950) is a Hong Kong-born Taiwanese politician who served as president of the Republic of China from 2008 to 2016. Previously, he served as justice minister from 1993 to 1996 and mayor of Taipei fro ...

Turing Award The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in compu ...

laureate

Andrew Yao Andrew Chi-Chih Yao (; born December 24, 1946) is a Chinese computer scientist and computational theorist. He is currently a professor and the dean of Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences (IIIS) at Tsinghua University. Yao use ...

, and

Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...

laureate Yuan T. Lee. NTU is affiliated with

National Taiwan Normal University National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU; ), or ''Shīdà'' is an institution of higher education and normal school operating out of three campuses in Taipei, Taiwan. NTNU is the leading research institute in such disciplines as Education and ...

and

National Taiwan University of Science and Technology The National Taiwan University of Science and Technology () abbreviated as NTUST or TaiwanTech (), is a public technological university located in Taipei, Taiwan. TaiwanTech was established in 1974 as the National Taiwan Institute of Technology ...

as part of the NTU System.

History

Imperial University

National Taiwan University has its origins in 臺北帝國大學 Taihoku Imperial University (Taihoku Teikoku Daigaku), founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as a member of the imperial university system administered by the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent form ...

. The school's first president was . Taihoku Imperial University began with the faculty of Liberal Arts and Law and the Faculty of Science and Agriculture serving 60 students. The university was intended mainly for Japanese nationals; few Taiwanese students were admitted. The Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Engineering were added in 1935 and 1943, respectively.

National University

After

, the Republic of China (Taiwan) government reorganized the school as an institution for Chinese-speaking students. The school was renamed ''National Taiwan University'' on 15 November 1945 and Lo Tsung-lo was appointed as its president. The Literature and Politics division was divided into the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Law. Additionally, colleges of Science, Medicine, Engineering, and Agriculture were established. Initially, there were six colleges with 22 departments. In 1945, student enrollment was 585. In 1960, the night school was initiated on a trial basis, and in 1967 a new night school was established. In 1987, the College of Management was established, followed by the College of Public Health in 1993 and the College of Electrical Engineering in 1997. The College of Electrical Engineering was later reorganized as the College of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. In 1999, the College of Law has renamed the College of Social Sciences, and the Night Division and the Center for Continuing Education were combined to form the School for Professional and Continuing Studies. In 2002, the College of Agriculture has renamed the College of Bio-resources and Agriculture, and in 2002 a College of Life Sciences was added. NTU selected as the national seven universities in research in 2002 (currently merged into six universities). ;Kuan Chung-ming Controversy :

Kuan Chung-ming Kuan Chung-ming (; born 15 August 1956) is a Taiwanese politician and academic. He was the last minister of the Council for Economic Planning and Development from 2013 to 2014 and served as the first minister of the succeeding government agency, ...

, an economist who previously served in the Ma Administration, was named university president-elect in January 2018 but soon became embroiled in allegations related to plagiarism, academic misconduct, and violations of civil code which stipulated that Taiwanese public servants were not permitted to deliver lectures or to be involved in any mainland China-related academic activities due to national security concerns. During the election and the subsequent investigation, Tei-Wei Kuo served as the interim president of the university while the president-elect underwent multiple legal investigations from the ruling DPP government. Though Kuan was eventually cleared of all accusations and officially named as the university president in January 2019 (see ), this prolonged investigation raised suspicion regarding the intervention from the ruling DPP government. Three Ministers of Education stepped down as a result of this event.

Campuses

NTU has a main campus in Daan District,

Taipei City Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

and has additional campuses in

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

New Taipei City New Taipei City is a special municipality located in northern Taiwan. The city is home to an estimated population of 3,974,683 as of 2022, making it the most populous city of Taiwan, and also the second largest special municipality by area, b ...

Hsinchu County Hsinchu County (Wade–Giles: ''Hsin¹-chu²'') is a county in north-western Taiwan. The population of the county is mainly Hakka; with a Taiwanese aboriginal minority in the southeastern part of the county. Zhubei is the county capital, wher ...

Yunlin County Yunlin County ( Mandarin pinyin: ''Yúnlín Xiàn''; Taigi POJ: ''Hûn-lîm-koān''; Hakka PFS: ''Yùn-lìm-yen'') is a county in western Taiwan. Yunlin County borders the Taiwan Strait to the west, Nantou County to the east, Changhua County ...

, and

Nantou County Nantou County (; Hokkien POJ: ''Lâm-tâu-koān''; Hakka PFS: ''Nàm-thèu-yen'') is the second largest county of Taiwan by area, located in the central part of the country. It is also the only non-coastal county in Taiwan. Its name derives fro ...

. The main campus is home to most college department buildings and administrative buildings. The university governs farms, forests, and hospitals for education and research purposes. The five campuses are: *Main Campus (113 hectares, located in Daan District,

) *Shuiyuan Campus (7.7 hectares, located in

Zhongzheng District Zhongzheng District (also Jhongjheng District) is a district in Taipei. It is home to most of the national government buildings of the Republic of China (Taiwan), including the Presidential Office, the Executive Yuan, the Control Yuan, the ...

) *College of Medicine Campus (located in

) *Yunlin Campus (54 hectares, located in

) *Zhubei Campus (22 hectares, located in

)

Other university property

*Visiting professor residences (34 hectares, located on Yangmingshan,

) *University Farm (19.5 hectares, located in

Xindian District Xindian District () is an inner city district in the southern part of New Taipei City, Taiwan. Name Xindian's name originated during the Qing Dynasty close to 300 years ago. According to legend, a person named Lin and others came from Quanzh ...

) *Wenshan Botanical Garden (5 hectares, located in Shiding District,

) *Highland Experimental Farm (1,019 hectares, located in

) *Experimental Forest Office (25.9 hectares, located in

) *Experimental Forest (33,310 hectares, located in

)

Academics

The university comprises 11 colleges: Liberal Arts, Engineering, Science, Social Sciences, Law, Bio-Resources & Agriculture, Management, Public Health, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Medicine, and Life Science. NTU offers

bachelor's degrees A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

, master's degrees, and

doctorate degrees A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' l ...

in many disciplines. NTU requires most of its undergraduate students to take a mandatory core curriculum, comprising Chinese, freshman English, physical education, and public service. The medical school in addition dictates each of its students to take

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

and

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

classes as well as seminars in

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concer ...

and thanatology.

Military training Military education and training is a process which intends to establish and improve the capabilities of military personnel in their respective roles. Military training may be voluntary or compulsory duty. It begins with recruit training, procee ...

is no longer an obligatory course for male students, but it is a prerequisite if they plan to apply to become officers during their compulsory military service. NTU's programs cover a wide array of disciplines across science, arts, and the humanities, with up to 8,000 courses made available for selection each semester. Students are able to select courses offered by any of the colleges; however, compulsory subjects designated for each major needs to be completed to be awarded a degree. A student must declare a major during college application, some majors are more competitive than others and require a higher national examination score. In recent years,

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

, law, and

finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of f ...

have been the most selective majors. Most majors take four years to complete while both the dental and the medical degrees take six years to finish. The International Chinese Language Program (ICLP), founded by

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

, is located at National Taiwan University. NTU is a member of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, Washington University in St. Louis's McDonnell International Scholars Academy, and the

Association of East Asian Research Universities The Association of East Asian Research Universities (AEARU) is an East Asian organisation comprising nineteen research universities. It was established in January 1996 at the suggestion of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The purp ...

. NTU also participates in several programs of the Taiwan International Graduate Program of

Academia Sinica Academia Sinica (AS, la, 1=Academia Sinica, 3=Chinese Academy; ), headquartered in Nangang, Taipei, is the national academy of Taiwan. Founded in Nanking, the academy supports research activities in a wide variety of disciplines, ranging fro ...

, Taiwan's most preeminent academic research institution.

University rankings

National Taiwan University is widely considered to be the best university in Taiwan. The

QS World University Rankings ''QS World University Rankings'' is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The QS system comprises three parts: the global overall ranking, the subject rankings (which name the world's top universities for th ...

(2023) placed it at 77th worldwide. The

Times Higher Education World University Rankings The ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'' (often referred to as the THE Rankings) is an annual publication of university rankings by the ''Times Higher Education'' (THE) magazine. The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarel ...

(2023) placed it at 187th worldwide. With other peering references of academic ranking, NTU also releases NTU World Universities ranking annually on the

Double Ten Day The National Day of the Republic of China ( zh, 中華民國的國慶日) or the Taiwan National Day, also referred to as Double Ten Day or Double Tenth Day, is a public holiday on 10 October, now held annually in Taiwan (officially the Republi ...

, the National Holiday of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeas ...

. The individual subject rankings from QS rankings in 2022 were: 24th in Classic and Ancient History, 36th in Modern languages, 38th in Civil and Structural Engineering, 42nd in Linguistic, 46th in Medicine, 47th in Nursing, 48th in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and 50th in Material Science.

List of presidents

The president heads the university. Each college is headed by a dean and each department by a chairman. Students elect their own representatives each year to attend administrative meetings.

National Taiwan University

* Since 8 January 2023 *

: 8 January 2019 - 7 January 2023 * (interim): October 2017 – January 2019 *: June 2013 – June 2017 *

Lee Si-chen Lee Si-chen (; born 13 August 1952 in Gangshan, Kaohsiung, Taiwan), is a Taiwanese engineer specializing in semiconductors, a researcher in amorphous silicon in the early development in Taiwan, and an IEEE Fellow. He has been a professor of elect ...

: August 2005 – June 2013 * Chen Wei-jao: 22 June 1993 – June 2005 *: March 1993 – June 1993 *: August 1984 – February 1993 *: August 1981 – July 1984 * Yen Cheng-hsing: June 1970 – July 1981 * Chien Szu-liang: January 1951 – May 1970 *: December 1950 – January 1951 * Fu Szu-nien: January 1949 – December 1950 *: June 1948 – December 1948 * Lu Chih-houng: August 1946 – May 1948 * Lo Tsung-lo: August 1945 – July 1946

Taihoku Imperial University

* Kazuo Ando (安藤一雄): March 1945 – August 1945 *: April 1941 – March 1945 *: September 1937 – April 1941 *: March 1928 – September 1937

Alumni

NTU has produced many notable alumni.

, the current

President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) The president of the Republic of China, now often referred to as the president of Taiwan, is the head of state of the Republic of China (ROC), as well as the commander-in-chief of the Republic of China Armed Forces. The position once had aut ...

, as well as former presidents

and

, all graduated from NTU. Both

laureate Yuan T. Lee and

laureate

received their

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

from the university. Many NTU electrical engineering graduates have gone on to build global companies, including

Quanta Computer Quanta Computer Incorporated () () is a Taiwan-based manufacturer of notebook computers and other electronic hardware. Its customers include Apple Inc., Dell, Hewlett-Packard Inc., Acer Inc., Alienware, Amazon.com, Cisco, Fujitsu, Gericom ...

's Barry Lam, Mediatek's

Tsai Ming-kai Tsai Ming-kai (; born 6 April 1950, in Taiwan) is a Taiwanese entrepreneur, currently Chairman of MediaTek. In 2014, according to Forbes he was ranked 20th Taiwanese by net worth ($1.80 billion). In 2014 he was 21st in the "Best-Performing CEOs ...

and Garmin's

Min Kao Min or MIN may refer to: Places * Fujian, also called Mǐn, a province of China ** Min Kingdom (909–945), a state in Fujian * Min County, a county of Dingxi, Gansu province, China * Min River (Fujian) * Min River (Sichuan) * Mineola (Amtra ...

Notes

References

External links

Official website in English
Educational institutions established in 1928 Universities and colleges in Taipei 1928 establishments in Taiwan Comprehensive universities in Taiwan