National Taiwan University

National Taiwan University
國立臺灣大學
Seal of the National Taiwan University
Motto	敦品勵學，愛國愛人 Dūnpǐn Lìxué, àiguó àiren
Motto in English	Cultivate virtue, advance intellect; love one's country, love one's people
Established	Founded 1928 Reorganized 1945
Type	Public (National)
President	Lee, Si-chen (李嗣涔)
Academic staff	1,793 (full time), 1,188 (joint and adjunct)
Undergraduates	17,706
Postgraduates	15,710
Location	Da'an, Taipei, Taiwan 25.016°N 121.536°E / 25.016; 121.536
Campus	Urban, 1.6 km² (Greater Taipei combined), 344 km² (Nantou County combined)
Former names	Taihoku Imperial University
Affiliations	ASAIHL AACSB
Website	www.ntu.edu.tw/english

National Taiwan University
Traditional Chinese	國立臺灣大學
Simplified Chinese	国立台湾大学
Transcriptions Hakka - Romanization Koet-li̍p Thòi-vân Thai-ho̍k Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Guólì Táiwān Dàxué - Tongyong Pinyin Guólì Táiwan Dàsyué - Wade–Giles Kuo²-li⁴ T'ai²-wan¹ Ta⁴-hsüeh² - Gwoyeu Romatzyh Gwolih Tair'uan Dahshyue - MPS2 Guólì Táiwān Dàshiué - Bopomofo ㄍㄨㄛˊ ㄌㄧˋ ㄊㄞˊ ㄨㄢ ㄉㄚˋ ㄒㄩㄝˊ Min - Hokkien POJ Kok-li̍p Tâi-oân Tāi-ha̍k - Taiwanese Romanization Kok-li̍p Tâi-uân Tāi-ha̍k
Taihoku Imperial University
Traditional Chinese	臺北帝國大學
Simplified Chinese	台北帝国大学
Transcriptions Hakka - Romanization Thòi-pet Ti-koet Thai-ho̍k Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Táipěi Dìguó Dàxué - Tongyong Pinyin Táipěi Dìguó Dàsyué - Wade–Giles T'ai²-pei³ Ti⁴-kuo² Ta⁴-hsüeh² - Gwoyeu Romatzyh Tairbeei Dihgwo Dahshyue - MPS2 Táipěi Dìguó Dàshiué - Bopomofo ㄊㄞˊ ㄅㄟˇ ㄉㄧˋ ㄍㄨㄛˊ ㄉㄚˋ ㄒㄩㄝˊ Min - Hokkien POJ Tâi-pak Tè-kok Tāi-ha̍k - Taiwanese Romanization Tâi-pak Tè-kok Tāi-ha̍k

National Taiwan University (Abbreviation: NTU; Chinese: 國立臺灣大學) is a national co-educational research university located in Taipei of Taiwan. In Taiwan, it is colloquially known as "Táidà" (台大). 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 and reorganized and renamed it National Taiwan University on November 15, 1945.

NTU is generally considered the top-ranked university in Taiwan. It has strong ties with the Academia Sinica.^{[citation needed]}

History

NTU Central Administration Building

National Taiwan University has its origins in the Taihoku Imperial University (台北帝國大學, Taihoku Teikoku Daigaku) founded by Taiwan's Japanese colonial government in 1928 as a member of the imperial university system administered by the Empire of Japan.

The school's first president was Taira Shidehara. The Taihoku Imperial University began with a Faculty of Liberal Arts and Law and a 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.

After World War II the government of the Republic of China 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. In 1962, joint projects with the Academia Sinica were initiated. An evening division was established in 1967. Between 1972 and 1975, the Philosophy Department Incident took place during the White Terror period authoritarian rule, resulting in the dismissal of several professors.

A new university library opened in 1998. In 1999, the evening division and the Center of Continuing Education merged to form the Division of Continuing Education & Professional Development. Lee Si-Chen, the current president, took office in 2005.

Academics

NTU offers bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and doctorate degrees in many disciplines. 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, electrical engineering, law, and finance have been the most selective majors. Most majors take four years to complete while the dental and the medical degree take six and seven years to finish, respectively.

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 and sociology classes as well as seminars in ethics and thanatology. Military training is no longer an obligatory course for male students, but it is a prerequisite if they plan to apply to become officers during their mandatory military service.

The total number of students, including those enrolled at the School of Professional and Continuing Studies, has grown to over 33,000, including over 17,000 university students and 15,000 graduate students. The university staff and students produced over 5000 research publications in 2010.

Organization

The original building housing National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei

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.

The colleges in NTU are:

• College of Liberal Arts
• College of Science
• College of Social Science
• College of Medicine
• College of Engineering
• College of Bio-resource and Agriculture
• College of Management
• College of Public Health
• College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• College of Law
• College of Life Science
• School of Dentistry
• School of Pharmacy

The International Chinese Language Program (ICLP), founded by Stanford University, is located at National Taiwan University.

Campuses

A lake in the main campus

The university has six campuses in the greater Taipei region (including New Taipei City) and two additional campuses in Nantou County, amounting to nearly 1% of the total area of the Taiwan island. The university governs farms, forests, and hospitals for education and research purposes.

The main campus (interactive map) is in Taipei's Daan district near Gongguan, where most college department buildings and all the administrative buildings are. Notable exceptions are the College of Law, the College of Social Science, and the College of Medicine, which are near the Presidential Building.

The six campuses are:

• Main Campus (No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, Taiwan)
• College of Law, Social Sciences and Public Health (No. 21, XuZhou Road, Taipei)
• College of Medicine (No. 1, Sec. 1, RenAi Road, Taipei)
• University Hospital (No. 7, ZhongShan South Road, Taipei)
• University Farm (No. 7, Jiu-kuang Road, Xindian, New Taipei)
• Wenshan Botanical Garden (No. 4, Lei-kung Po, Geh-tou Tsun, Shiding, New Taipei)

Research stations

The three research stations are:

• Highland Farm (No. 136, Jen-heh Road, Ta-tung Tsun, Jen-ai, Nan-tou County)
• Experimental Forest
• Department of Forestry (No. 12, Sec.1, Chien-shan Road, Shiang-shan, Nan-tou County)

University presidents

Presidents of Taihoku Imperial University:

• Taira Shidehara (幣原坦): March 1928-September 1937
• Sadanori Mita (三田定則): September 1937-April 1941
• Masatsugu Ando (安藤正次): April 1941-March 1945
• Kazuo Ando (安藤一雄): March 1945-August 1945

Presidents of National Taiwan University:

• Lo Tsung-lo (羅宗洛): August 1945-July 1946
• Lu Chih-houng (陸志鴻): August 1946-May 1948
• Chuang Chang-kung (莊長恭): June 1948-December 1948
• Fu Szu-nien (傅斯年): January 1949-December 1950
• Shen Kang-po (沈剛伯): December 1950-January 1951
• Chien Szu-liang (錢思亮): January 1951-May 1970
• Yen Cheng-hsing (閻振興): June 1970-July 1981
• Yu Chao-Chung (虞兆中): August 1981-July 1984
• Sun Chen (孫震): August 1984-February 1993
• Kou Guang-hsiung (郭光雄): March 1993-July 1993
• Chen Wei-Jao (陳維昭): August 1993-June 2005
• Lee Si-Chen (李嗣涔): August 2005-

World Rankings

University rankings
Global
ARWU	101-150
Times	134
QS	80
Asia
Times	14
QS (World version) QS (Asian version)	15 20

NTU is generally considered to be the best university in Taiwan.

The QS World University Rankings (2012) placed it at 80th worldwide, making it 15th in Asia. The independent regional QS Asian University Rankings of the same year considered it 20th in Asia. It was the best of all Taiwanese tertiary institutes in both rankings.

Meanwhile, the university was at 134th in the world and 14th in Asia in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (2012-13), and 51st-60th in its World Reputation Rankings, both of which regarded it as the first in Taiwan.

Moreover, the ARWU (2012) listed it at a position among 101-150th globally and the best in both Taiwan and Greater China.

Status and alumni

See also: List of National Taiwan University people

Yuan T. Lee received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Ma Ying-jeou, the current president of Taiwan

Alec Su studied mechanical engineering at NTU, but did not graduate.

National Taiwan University has produced many notable alumni. Ma Ying-jeou, the current President of the Republic of China as of 2012, as well as former presidents Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian, are graduates from NTU. Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate Yuan T. Lee received his BSc from the university. Over 40 NTU alumni were elected as members of US National Academy of Engineering or US National Academy of Science.

Other alumni include:

• Wen Chi Chen (陳文琦): President and CEO of VIA Technologies
• Chang Yi Wang: Chairperson and CEO of the United Biomedical, Inc. (UBI) Group of companies.
• Vivian E. Shih, M.D.: Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School
• Felice Chen: Former Managing Director and Co-Head of Investment Banking for UBS Investment Bank in Taipei
• Chen, Sisy (陳文茜): famous talk show host in Taiwan
• Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌): Premier of R.O.C., 2006–2007
• YAO, Andrew (姚期智): Turing Award 2000; Professor, Princeton University; Professor, Tsinghua University, Beijing (2004 - )
• Robert Chiu: Managing Director, Head of Telecommunications, Media and Technology investment banking at Nomura
• John Chou (周鴻成): Chief Actuary and Senior Vice President of Liberty National Life Insurance Co., the founding division of Torchmark Corporation
• Simon Min Sze (施敏): pioneer in MOSFET; IEEE J J Ebers Award, 1991
• Yu-Chong Tai (戴聿昌): pioneer in microelectromechanical system (MEMS); Professor of Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology
• Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫): Former Chairman of the Koos Group of companies
• General Chen Chao-ming, M.B.A. (陳肇敏): Commander-in-Chief, R.O.C. Air Force, 1998–2002; Deputy Defense Minister, R.O.C., 2002-
• Chen-Yuan Lee, M.D. (李鎮源): co-discoverer of bungarotoxin; Redi Award, 1976; Former President, International Society on Toxinology
• Benjamin Hsiao (BS, Chemical Engineering 1980) : Chief Research Officer and Vice-President for Research at Stony Brook University, Fellow of the American Physical Society, Fellow of the American Chemical Society, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• T.J. Huang (黃宗仁): Founder and Managing Partner of AsiaVest Partners, one of the leading venture capital firms in the Far East
• Steven Hung: Chairman of Waterland Financial Holding Co., Ltd.
• Kwang-chih Chang (張光直): Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University
• Min H. Kao (高民環): Co-founder of Garmin Corporation, the GPS manufacturer
• Barry Lam: (林百里): Founder and Chairman of Quanta Computer, the leading laptop producer worldwide
• Fred Pai: Chairman of Central Insurance Co. and brother of Wayne Pai, founder and former chairman of Polaris Financial Group
• Yuan-Tsong Chen, M.D. (陳垣崇): inventor of Myozyme, the first EMEA- and U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment for Pompe disease (approved in 2006); Director, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica; former Chief and Professor, the Pediatrics Division of Medical Genetics, Duke University Medical Center
• John Shen: Executive of Globalization Services, IBM China Development Laboratory
• Tun-Hou Lee (李惇厚): Professor of Virology, Harvard School of Public Health
• Lee Teng-hui (李登輝): President of R.O.C., 1988–2000
• Li Ao (李敖): A writer, social commentator, historian, independent scholar and politician in the Republic of China (Taiwan).
• Lien Chan (連戰): Vice President of R.O.C., 1996–2000
• Rick Tsai (蔡力行): President and CEO of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company
• Peter Chen (陳品山): originator of the Entity-Relationship Model
• Alec Su (蘇有朋): actor and singer
• Wakin Chau (周華健): singer
• William Wei (韋禮安): singer
• Monster, Wen Shang-Yi (怪獸): guitarist and leader of the Taiwanese rock band, Mayday.

See also

• National Taiwan University Hospital
• List of universities in Taiwan
• Education in Taiwan

External links

• Official website in English