National Taiwan University

National Taiwan University is a national co-educational research university located in Taipei, Taiwan. Its 1,086,167 m2 main campus is located in Taipei's Da'an District. In addition, the university has 6 other campuses in Taipei and elsewhere, with a total area of 345,830,000 m2. The University consists of 11 colleges, 54 departments, 103 graduate institutes and 4 research centers. In 2010, the student body consisted of 17,514 undergraduate students and 15,824 graduate students.

The university was founded in 1928 by the Japanese administration during the Japanese colonial era and was then known as the Taihoku (Taipei) Imperial University. After World War II, the government of the Republic of China resumed the administration of Taihoku University, reorganizing and renaming it National Taiwan University on November 15, 1945.

NTU is considered one of the most prestigious universities in Taiwan. It also has strong ties with the Academia Sinica in Taiwan in the form of research and teaching collaborations and a joint program office.

• College of Liberal Arts

  The goals of the College are to produce knowledge, increase general understanding and appreciation of humanity and arts and improve Education Quality.

   To enhance instructional efficiency, the College, its departments and graduate institutes are continually upgrading their facilities. The University Library houses over half a million volumes related to humanities and arts, the largest collection in the country. Records, CD-ROMs, and films in the Foreign Language Teaching & Resource Center total more than 10,000 items. The Department of Anthropology displays precious archaeological samples and items that are unique in the world. In addition, the College's computer classroom is well-equipped with state-of-the-art software and provides an outstanding environment for teaching and learning.

• College of Science

  The College of Science is now made up of seven departments, three graduate institutes and six research centers. The scope of research covers the entire range of basic sciences, earth sciences and social sciences. The basic sciences are represented by the Departments of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Psychology (1), and Graduate Institutes of Astrophysics and Applied Physics. The earth sciences are represented by the Departments of Geosciences, Geography (1), Atmospheric Science, and the Graduate Institute of Oceanography. The social sciences are represented by Psychology (2) and Geography (2). 

  Six Centers are currently housed in the College also: Instrumentation Center, Global Change Research, Spatial Information Research, Theoretical Sciences, Typhoon Research, and Atmospheric Resource and Disaster Studies.

  Each Department and Graduate Institute of the College fulfills the dual function of education and research. The seven departments provide specialized training at both undergraduate and graduate levels, offering B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees for each individual program. Several departments are responsible also for the general science courses taken by all students at the University. The College of Science therefore offers a full range of undergraduate and graduate training programs. The faculty members who are responsible for the education of our future professionals belong to the best and most competitive research teams in Taiwan. It is our belief that creative teaching lies at the heart of high quality research and that, at the same time, the advanced research performed at our College is a guarantee of solid training and broad interdisciplinary background so vital to scientists in the age of globalization.

  Faculty members of the College of Science are actively engaged in research and are some of Taiwan’s best and most academically driven researchers in their respective areas of specialization. Scholars from the College are often invited to seminars, workshops and prominent international conferences for lectures concerning their latest work. Their research also appears in internationally renowned journals. The College of Science highly encourages the exchange of international scholars and students with leading institutions abroad.

• College of Social Sciences

  NTU's College of Social Sciences (COSS) is the leading institution in Taiwan's social science research society. Many alumni of COSS work at top research and higher education institutions both in Taiwan and abroad, contributing substantially to the innovation, accumulation, and dissemination of social sciences knowledge, especially in the Chinese speaking world. In addition to cultivating social scientists, COSS education has allowed our graduates to develop excellent careers in corporations and not-for-profits. Many of them, by combining social sciences training with management skills, have risen to leadership and executive positions. Even more importantly, COSS has been the cradle for talents in the central and local government, as well as the legislative branch. Our graduates have played indispensable roles in the country's highest leadership and senior civil service.  

• College of Medicine

  School of Medicine has 27 Departments, 20 Graduate Institutes and 5 Research Centers. Prospects:

  • To Cultivate Humanistic Physicians
  • To Respond to Social Needs
  • To Lead the Medical Profession
  • To Advance Health Sciences

• College of Engineering

  NTU College of Engineering (COE) is the best College of Engineering in Taiwan. We enjoy the best students from Taiwan as well as the best support from both the government and the industry. These resources allowed the faculty of the COE to grow both in research and in education. Today we are proud to be among the best Colleges in the world. The 2015 QS world university rankings ranked the NTU faculty of engineering and technology at number 34. Our Civil Engineering department actually ranked 28. The Chemical Engineering department ranked 35 and the Materials Science and Engineering department ranked 41. And, these figures will keep improving.

• College of Bio-Resources & Agriculture

  Since 1945 the College has steadily expanded its programs to meet the growing demands of agricultural research. There are twelve departments now. They are Agronomy, Bio-nvironmental Systems Engineering, Agricultural Chemistry, Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Entomology, Forestry and Resource Conservation, Animal Science and Technology, Horticulture, Veterinary Medicine Agricultural Economics, Bio-industry Commnnication and Development and Bio-Industrial Mechatronics Engineering. Each department has a graduate institute, providing both Master and Ph.D. degrees. There are also Institute of Food Science and Technology, Institute of Biotechnology and graduate school of veterinary clinical science.

• College of Management

  NTU College of Management was founded in 1987. In retrospect, the development of the College can be divided into four main stages: the rudimentary stage, the growing stage, the expansion stage, and the stage of innovation and excellence. Under the leadership of both the present and past deans, the College is now comprised of the Department and Graduate Institute of Business Administration, Department and Graduate Institute of Accounting, Department and Graduate Institute of Finance, Department and Graduate Institute of International Business, Department and Graduate Institute of Information Management, Global MBA Program, Executive MBA Program, and an English-taught undergraduate program in Business Administration.

  Since 2010, the College has actively launched a series of initiatives for internationalization, which include the signing of MOUs on dual degree programs with Beijing University and Fudan University of Mainland China and building partnerships with strategic partner universities in the U.S. and Hong Kong in terms of deepening cooperation and promoting the sharing of global academic resources. Meanwhile, the College has cooperated with renowned domestic enterprises in the development of the world’s first business school which has incorporated cloud technology into teaching and learning through the creation of an academic program on cloud computing application. In all, the College spares no efforts in striving to strengthen its global standing among the world’s top business schools. 

• College of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

  The College of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS) of NTU founded in 1997, now consists of Division of Electrical Engineering (EE) and the Division of Computer Science (CS). Currently, the College of EECS includes the Department of Electrical Engineering, the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, as well as the Graduate Institutes of Photonics and Optoelectronics, Communication Engineering, Networking and Multimedia, and Biomechanical Electronics and Bioinformatics, covering several most areas in EECS. As of 2015, the College boasts a total of about 180 faculty members, 1300 undergraduate students, and 2200 graduate students.

• College of Law

  Founded in 1999, NTU Law has established itself as an outstanding institute for legal research and education. In 2015, we were ranked by the QS World University Rankings as the 43rd best law school in the world. Our faculty members and students, however, are not content with this encouraging result, and feel compelled to contribute more to the community. With our collective efforts, NTU Law will advance to the top.

  We continue to seek funding from within and without the university, for the purpose of encouraging our faculty members to conduct fundamental, practical, progressive, interdisciplinary and collaborative studies, addressing research needs in their individual areas. Our job is to offer funds and administrative assistance without interfering with the researching processes. We should treat all faculty members equally, and respect everyone’s research direction and approach.

  One of our current challenges is the high student-faculty ratio, which makes it impossible for teachers to develop a deeper connection with students. Thus it should be our priority to increase the number of our faculty. As it is difficult to secure funding from the university and government, we need to rely on external support. For the purpose of attracting more funds, NTU Law must raise its academic and social profile. In the future, we will hire more experts in emerging areas of law to reflect the general trend, while at the same time making all efforts to reinforce fundamental legal studies.

• College of Life Science

  To follow the world trends and the development of future bioscience, College of Life Science was founded by National Taiwan University in 2003. The College of Life Science currently has 85 full-time faculty members. The combined force offers the best quality academic programs in Taiwan in all modern biological sciences, such as molecular biology, systematic biology, biochemical sciences, biotechnology, and ecological studies. Many of our faculty members are leading figures in their specialized fields. More than ten members are chairmen or chairwomen in Ministry of Science and Technology committees. Many have received MOST Awards of Excellence in Research.

The predecessor of National Taiwan University was Taihoku (Taipei) Imperial University (TIU), founded by the Japanese in 1928. The first president was Dr. Taira Shidehara. When TIU was first established, it had two colleges: the Faculty of Literature and Politics, and the Faculty of Science and Agriculture, and had a combined total of 59 students. The Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Engineering were added in 1935 and 1943 respectively. The Faculty of Science and Agriculture was also divided into two colleges in 1943: the Faculty of Science, and the Faculty of Agriculture.

During Taihoku Imperial University period, every college consisted of "lectures", which were conducted by a professor and included assistant professors, assistants, instructors and office employees. In 1945, the five colleges had 114 lectures with 382 students.

After World War II and Taiwan's retrocession to Chinese Sovereignty, the R.O.C. government completed the taking-over work officially on November 15, 1945, with Dr. Tsung-lo Lo serving as the first president, and reorganized and renamed the school "National Taiwan University". The Faculty of Literature and Policitcs of TIU was divided into two colleges: the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Law. The University thus consisted of six colleges (Liberal Arts, Law, Science, Medicine, Engineering, and Agriculture) and had twenty-two departments with 500 odd students. The Evening Division, the College of Management, the College of Public Health, and the College of Electrical Engineering (renamed as the College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 2000) were established respectively in 1967, 1987, 1993, and 1997. In 1999, the College of Social Sciences replaced the College of Law, and the Department of Law was upgraded to become the College of Law. The evening division and the Center of Continuing Education were also combined into the Division of Continuing Education & Professional Development. In 2002, the College of Agriculture was renamed the College of Bio-Resources and Agriculture. In 2003, the College of Life Science was established. As of the 2009 academic year, the University has a total of eleven colleges, 54 departments, 100 graduate institutes (which offer 100 Master's programs and 91 doctoral programs), and 25 research centers: the Division of Population and Gender Studies, the Center for Condensed Matter Sciences, the Center for Biotechnology, Japanese Research Center, and the Biodiversity Center, etc. The number of students reached 33,000 in 2009.

Accreditation 

• Institutional Accreditation or Recognition: Ministry of Education, Republic of China (Taiwan)
• Year of first Accreditation: 1945

International rankings 

• #70 - QS World University Rankings
• #23 - QS WU Rankings by Subject Engineering
• #22 - Asian University Rankings

NTU has hundreds of student clubs and associations from International Students Club to Flower Club. The Office of Student Affairs, Student Activities Division is responsible for working together with the university clubs and activities, and promoting new clubs opening. Moreover, the division organizes various events throughout the year such as Orientation Camp, NTU Azalea Festival (student clubs expo), Welcome Concert, Anniversary Carnival, Student Club Competitions, Social Service Campaign and more. The Division website is regularly updated with latest student activities news, on top of having general information on the university student clubs and activities. 

Specific information about student clubs at NTU can be found at the Student Clubs Information System website. On this website, you can search for information related to the hundreds of student associations at NTU and the activities they hold. However, the names of the Student Clubs are in Chinese on the website, so international students might need some help from a native speaker.

Accommodation 

Accommodation is provided by Prince Corporation in cooperation with NTU. There are two dormitories: Chang Hsin Dormitory and Shuei Yuan Dormitory, which are nearby the campus. Internet and water are included in the rent, while electricity, telephone, and cable TV bills are separated. Facilities in the room include independent bathroom, bed (without mattress), table, bookshelf, closet, refrigerator, air conditioning, 24-hour hot water, cable TV output, Internet, and telephone output.

There are spacious communal living areas, meeting rooms in 1F lobby and the dorms are serviced by 24 hour manned receptions. Bike storage and spacious car parking area (at an additional cost) is at basement level. Sports facilities in the building, separate male and female laundry rooms are also located at basement level.

Sports & Recreation

National Taiwan University Sports Center is located on the corner of XinSheng South Rd. and XinHai Rd. The sports center contains an array of amenities including a fitness center, a 25-meter swimming pool, squash courts, ping pong tables, indoor basketball courts, and much more. National Taiwan University also has an outdoor swimming pool that is open from April 25 to October 9. The sports center also has a small store where you may purchase swimming equipment.

The fitness center has a large variety of equipment including treadmills, ellipticals, row machines, dumbbells, smith machines, and many others. Both the pool and the fitness center have a separate shower where you are able to clean up.

Cafeteria

• Self-Service Chinese Food Bar (priced by weight)
• Japanese Cuisine
• Korean Cuisine
• Cantonese Cuisine

Some of the University's wide-ranging resources, services and advantages include

• A privileged location. NTU's main location is a large garden-campus in the center of Taipei, and is easily accessible by public transport.
• The largest library in Taiwan. The NTU Library contains four million volumes.
• Sports facilities.A large part of the campus is devoted to exercise and health, including the New Sports Center opened in 2002, the Old Stadium and various outdoor tennis courts and playing fields.
• An e-University. NTU offers wide computing availability on campus and provides webmail portals, multiple networking services, computer courses, distance learning services, cloud computing for storage, software share and mobile devices, such as the MyNTU portal, NTU Space, NTU AppShare, NTU SoftBank and iNTU.
• 400 student clubs. Student activities flourish as an integral part of NTU's liberal and pluralistic environment.