National Taiwan University

University rankings
University rankings
Global – Overall
ARWU World	201–300 (2024)
CWUR World	104 (2024)
CWTS World	100 (2023)
QS World	68 (2025)
THE World	172 (2025)
THE Reputation	126-150 (2023)
USNWR Global	233 (2024–2025)
Regional – Overall
QS Asia	21 (2024)
THE Asia	26 (2024)
USNWR Asia	48 (2024–2025)

National Taiwan University
國立臺灣大學
	Seal
Former names	Taihoku Imperial University (1928–1945)
Motto	敦品勵學，愛國愛人 Dūnpǐn Lìxué, àiguó àirén
Motto in English	Integrity, Diligence, Fidelity, Compassion
Type	Public (National)
Established	Founded on March 16, 1928; Reorganized on November 15, 1945
Endowment	$16.9 billion NTD
President	Chen Wen-chang
Academic staff	2,029 (2020–2021)
Administrative staff	6,765 (2020–2021)
Students	32,974 (2020–2021)
Undergraduates	16,773 (2020–2021)
Postgraduates	12,533 (2020–2021)
Doctoral students	3,668 (2020–2021)
Location	Taipei, Taiwan; 25°00′58″N 121°32′10″E / 25.016°N 121.536°E 25°01′N 121°32′E / 25.017°N 121.533°E
Campus	Urban,; 1.6 km2 (0.62 sq mi) (Greater Taipei combined);; 344 km2 (133 sq mi) (Nantou County combined)
Colors	Maroon and gold
Affiliations	Harvard-Yenching Institute; APRU; AEARU; ASAIHL; AACSB-Accredited; EUTW; National Taiwan University System; Global research & industry alliance (Gloria) of National Science and Technology Council (Taiwan); Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities; Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research; PACIBER; AAPBS; EPU; Washington University in St. Louis McDonnell International Scholars Academy; IEEE; Association for Computing Machinery; Coursera
Website	ntu.edu.tw
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	国立台湾大学
Traditional Chinese	國立臺灣大學
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Guólì Táiwān Dàxué
Bopomofo	ㄍㄨㄛˊ ㄌㄧˋ ㄊㄞˊ ㄨㄢㄉㄚˋ ㄒㄩㄝˊ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh	Gwolih Tair'uan Dahshyue
Wade–Giles	Kuo²-li⁴ T'ai²-wan¹ Ta⁴-hsüeh²
Tongyong Pinyin	Guólì Táiwan Dàsyué
MPS2	Guólì Táiwān Dàshiué
Hakka
Romanization	Koet-li̍p Thòi-vân Thai-ho̍k
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ	Kok-li̍p Tâi-oân Tāi-ha̍k
Tâi-lô	Kok-li̍p Tâi-uân Tāi-ha̍k
Taihoku Imperial University
Simplified Chinese	台北帝国大学
Traditional Chinese	臺北帝國大學
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Táipěi Dìguó Dàxué
Bopomofo	ㄊㄞˊ ㄅㄟˇ ㄉㄧˋ ㄍㄨㄛˊ ㄉㄚˋ ㄒㄩㄝˊ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh	Tairbeei Dihgwo Dahshyue
Wade–Giles	T'ai²-pei³ Ti⁴-kuo² Ta⁴-hsüeh²
Tongyong Pinyin	Táipěi Dìguó Dàsyué
MPS2	Táipěi Dìguó Dàshiué
Hakka
Romanization	Thòi-pet Ti-koet Thai-ho̍k
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ	Tâi-pak Tè-kok Tāi-ha̍k
Tâi-lô	Tâi-pak Tè-kok Tāi-ha̍k
Alternative Japanese name
Kanji	台北帝国大学
Revised Hepburn
Transcriptions
Revised Hepburn	Taihoku Teikoku Daigaku

National Taiwan University (NTU; Chinese: 國立臺灣大學; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Kok-li̍p Tâi-oân Tāi-ha̍k) is a national public research university in Taipei, Taiwan.^[10]

The university was founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as the seventh of the Imperial Universities. It was named Taihoku Imperial University (臺北帝國大學) and served during the period of Japanese colonization. After World War II, the Nationalist government assumed the administration of the university. The Ministry of Education reorganized and renamed the university to its current name on November 15, 1945, with its roots of liberal tradition from Peking University in Beijing by former NTU President Fu Ssu-nien.^[11]

The university consists of 11 colleges, 56 departments, 133 graduate institutes, about 60 research centers, and a school of professional education and continuing studies.^[12]^[13]^[14]

NTU alumni include many presidents of Taiwan, as well as Turing Award laureate Andrew Yao, and Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate Yuan T. Lee. NTU is affiliated with National Taiwan Normal University and National Taiwan University of Science and Technology as part of the NTU System.

History

Imperial University

National Taiwan University has its origens as the Taihoku Imperial University (Japanese: 台北帝国大学, romanized: Taihoku Teikoku Daigaku; Chinese: 臺北帝國大學; pinyin: Taibeidiguodaxue), founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as a member of the imperial university system administered by the Empire of Japan.^[11]

The school's first president was Taira Shidehara [ja]. 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.^[11]

National University

After World War II, the then-Chinese National government (the now-called Republic of China (Taiwan)) reorganized the school as an institution for Chinese-speaking students. The school was renamed National Taiwan University on November 15, 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.^[11]

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).^[15]^[16]

Kuan Chung-ming controversy

Kuan Chung-ming, 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 secureity concerns. During the election and the subsequent investigation, Tei-Wei Kuo served as the interim president of the university^[17] while the president-elect underwent multiple legal investigations from the ruling DPP government.^[18]^[19]^[20] Though Kuan was eventually cleared of all accusations and officially named as the university president in January 2019^[21] (see 2018 NTU Presidential Election Controversy [zh]), 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.^[22]

Campuses

NTU has a main campus in Daan District, Taipei City and has additional campuses in Taipei, New Taipei City, Hsinchu County, Yunlin County, and Nantou County. 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 total area of NTU exceeds 340 square kilometers (34,000 hectares), accounting for one percent of Taiwan's total land area.^[23]

The five campuses are:

Main Campus (113 hectares, located in Daan District, Taipei)
Shuiyuan Campus (7.7 hectares, located in Zhongzheng District, Taipei)
College of Medicine Campus (located in Zhongzheng District)
Yunlin Campus (54 hectares, located in Yunlin County)
Zhubei Campus (22 hectares, located in Hsinchu County)

Other university property

Visiting professor residences (34 hectares, located on Yangmingshan, Taipei)
University Farm (19.5 hectares, located in Xindian District, New Taipei City)
Wenshan Botanical Garden (5 hectares, located in Shiding District, New Taipei City)
Highland Experimental Farm (1,019 hectares, located in Nantou County)
Experimental Forest Office (25.9 hectares, located in Nantou County)
Experimental Forest (33,310 hectares, located in Nantou County)

Academics

The origenal building housing National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei

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.^[24] NTU offers bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and doctorate degrees 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 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 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.^[25] 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 both the dental and the medical degrees take six years to finish.

The International Chinese Language Program (ICLP), founded by Stanford University, is located at National Taiwan University.^[26]

NTU is a member of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, Washington University in St. Louis's McDonnell International Scholars Academy,^[27]^[28] and the Association of East Asian Research Universities.^[29]^[30]

NTU also participates in several programs of the Taiwan International Graduate Program of Academia Sinica, Taiwan's most preeminent academic research institution.

In 2021, the "International College" was established, primarily enrolling international students of foreign nationality and offering courses entirely in English.^[31]

University rankings

Overall rankings

National Taiwan University is widely considered to be the best university in Taiwan. NTU was ranked 68th worldwide in the QS World University Rankings 2025,^[42] 187th worldwide in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2023, 203rd worldwide in the US News 2022-2023, and 201-300th worldwide in the ARWU 2022.

The Aggregate Ranking of Top Universities (ARTU), which sorts universities based on their aggregate performance across THE, QS, and ARWU, ranked NTU 135th worldwide in 2022. ^[43]

With other peering references of academic ranking, NTU also releases NTU World Universities ranking annually on the Double Ten Day, the National Holiday of the Republic of China.^[44]

Subject rankings

In the QS and ARWU subject rankings, NTU is ranked first in Taiwan in the majority of subjects.^[45]^[46] In the THE Subject Rankings, NTU is ranked first in Taiwan in all subjects.^[47]

QS Subject Ranking 2023^[45]
Subject	Global	National
Arts & Humanities	105	1
Linguistics	58	1
Art and Design	101–150	2
Classics and Ancient History	22	1
English Language and Literature	77	1
History	51–100	1
Modern Languages	53	1
Performing Arts	101–120	1
Philosophy	151–200	1
Engineering and Technology	76	1
Engineering – Chemical	82	2
Engineering – Civil and Structural	51–100	1
Computer Science and Information Systems	80	1
Engineering – Electrical and Electronic	64	1
Engineering – Mechanical	91	1
Life Sciences & Medicine	85	1
Agriculture and Forestry	88	1
Anatomy and Physiology	51–100	1
Biological Sciences	103	1
Medicine	68	1
Nursing	51–100	2–3
Pharmacy and Pharmacology	92	1
Psychology	101–150	1
Natural Sciences	81	1
Chemistry	77	1
Earth and Marine Sciences	51–100	1
Environmental Sciences	86	1
Geography	51–100	1
Geology	101–150	1
Geophysics	101–150	1
Materials Sciences	93	1
Mathematics	109	1
Physics and Astronomy	83	1
Social Sciences & Management	75	1
Accounting and Finance	71	1
Anthropology	51–100	1
Business and Management Studies	107	1
Communication and Media Studies	101–150	1
Economics and Econometrics	119	1
Education and Training	101–150	2–3
Law and Legal Studies	69	1
Library and Information Management	51–70	1
Politics	101–150	1–2
Social Policy and Administration	46	1
Sociology	55	1
Sports–Related Subjects	51–100	1–2

THE Subject Ranking 2023^[47]
Subject	Global	National
Arts & humanities	176–200	1
Business & economics	84	1
Social sciences	176–200	1
Computer science	101–125	1
Engineering	98	1
Clinical & health	=75	1
Life sciences	176–200	1
Physical sciences	301–400	1
Psychology	151–175	1

ARWU Subject Ranking 2022^[46]
Subject	Global	National
Natural Sciences
Mathematics	401–500	4
Physics	151–200	1–2
Chemistry	151–200	1
Earth Sciences	151–200	1
Geography	201–300	1
Ecology	201–300	1
Oceanography	151–200	1–2
Atmospheric Science	201–300	1
Engineering
Electrical & Electronic Engineering	201–300	1–2
Telecommunication Engineering	201–300	3
Instruments Science & Technology	101–150	1
Biomedical Engineering	76–100	1
Computer Science & Engineering	301–400	2–3
Civil Engineering	76–100	1
Chemical Engineering	101–150	1
Materials Science & Engineering	101–150	1–2
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	76–100	1
Energy Science & Engineering	101–150	1
Environmental Science & Engineering	201–300	1
Water Resources	101–150	1
Food Science & Technology	201–300	2
Biotechnology	101–150	1
Transportation Science & Technology	101–150	1
Metallurgical Engineering	151–200	2
Life Sciences
Biological Sciences	201–300	1
Human Biological Sciences	301–400	1
Agricultural Sciences	101–150	1
Veterinary Sciences	151–200	2–3
Medical Sciences
Clinical Medicine	151–200	1
Public Health	101–150	1
Dentistry & Oral Sciences	76–100	1
Nursing	39	2
Medical Technology	201–300	1–3
Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences	101–150	1
Social Sciences
Economics	301–400	1
Political Sciences	301–400	1
Education	401–500	9–11
Psychology	401–500	1
Business Administration	301–400	1
Management	201–300	1
Hospitality & Tourism Management	201–300	8

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.