National Taiwan Normal University

History

The National Taiwan Normal University opened its doors in the early 20th century during Japanese rule in Taiwan. Taiwan's Japanese governors established the school as Taiwan Provincial College. Soon after they gave it the name Taihoku College (Taihoku is "Taipei" in Japanese). The school's purpose was to nurture a native educated class qualified to assist the government in matters of administration. Many buildings on the university's main campus date from the Japanese colonial period, including the Administration Building, the Lecture Hall, Wenhui Hall and Puzi Hall. Japanese civil engineers incorporated features of the Neo-Classical, Gothic and Gothic Revival styles often encountered on European university campuses. A room in the Lecture Hall housed the traditional Japanese document that authorizes and formalizes campus construction.

In 1946 China's Kuomintang government assumed control of Taiwan and redefined the school as Taiwan Provincial Teachers’ College. Some school publications still display 1946 as the institution's founding date in reference to this regime change. A number of Taiwan's leading authors, poets, artists, educators, musicians, and researchers have passed through the university's doors as students and faculty. Puru, a famous painter and cousin to the last emperor of China, was a professor in the art department from 1950 to 1963. In 1956 the Mandarin Training Center opened its doors as an extension of the college. The school acquired its present name, National Taiwan Normal University, in 1967. By now the school had established itself as a recognized center of learning in arts, literature and the humanities; its fundamental mission, though, remained the preparation of teachers.

As Taiwanese society made its shift from authoritarian rule to democracy in the 1990s, the university saw its role transformed by passage of the 1994 Teacher Preparation Law. The law gave more schools responsibility for teacher training and set NTNU on its present course as a truly comprehensive university. New departments were created, course offerings and majors were expanded, and new faculty were hired. The university became a hub of international activity, enabling Taiwanese students to travel abroad, attracting international students to Taipei, and building exchange programs with dozens of sister institutions around the world.

University structure

NTNU occupies three campuses in downtown Taipei: the historic Da'an campus (home of the Administration Building, Main Library, Music & Lecture Hall, Language Building, Athletic Center); the Gongguan campus (home of the College of Science); and the Linkou campus. Academic programs at NTNU are administered by ten colleges:

(For more detail see Academic Departments, below.)

In 2006 the school published the following figures for students enrolled and employees retained.

The university also runs the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University, a daughter institution for secondary-school students in Taiwan.

International programs

Internationally NTNU is best known for its Mandarin Training Center (formerly known as the Center for Chinese Language and Cultural Studies), a program founded in 1956 for the study of Mandarin Chinese to foreign students. The Mandarin Training Center represents one of the world's oldest and most distinguished programs for language study, attracting more than a thousand students from over sixty countries to Taiwan each year and making the Shida area of Taipei one of the city's most cosmopolitan. Courses in language, literature, calligraphy, art and martial arts are offered in a series of three-month terms throughout the year, enabling international students to undertake language studies during summer breaks and within single semesters. The center also sponsors travel, hosts speech contests, and stages workshops and performances for a variety of East Asian arts. A Mandarin Training Center Alumni Association (MTCAA) has been operating since 1998.

Other international highlights recently at NTNU include the International Chemistry Olympiad hosted by the university in 2005 and the merger of NTNU with the University Preparatory School for Overseas Chinese Students in 2006.

NTNU nurtures a robust system of partnerships to enable this level of international study. Among the institutions that enjoy sister relationships with NTNU are the Universidade de Sao Paulo in Brazil, La Universidad Nacional de Asuncion in Paraguay, Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Radford University, Rutgers University, San Diego State University, San Francisco State University, University of California - Los Angeles, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Iowa and University of Pittsburgh in the US, the University of Alberta, University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University in Canada, the University of Glasgow and University of London in the UK, the Denis Diderot University and University of Poitiers in France, University of Bonn and University of Heidelberg in Germany, the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts in Austria, the RSM Erasmus University in the Netherlands, the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland, and the Babes-Bolyai University in Romania, to name a few. NTNU's connections in the Asia-Pacific region are particularly extensive, including dozens of academic institutions representing South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, and New Zealand.

Academic Departments

The National Taiwan Normal University consists of seven colleges comprising a number of departments.

(* denotes graduate study only.)

College of Education

College of Fine and Applied Arts

College of International Studies and Education for Overseas Chinese

College of Liberal Arts

College of Music

College of Management

College of Science

College of Social Science

College of Sports and Recreation

College of Technology

Professors

Alumni

Mandarin Training Center Alumni

Nomenclature

The standard abbreviation for the National Taiwan Normal University in English is NTNU. In Mandarin Chinese it is Shi1da4. The word "Shida" in many Taipei place names (Shida Night Market, Shida Road, Shida Bookstore, etc.) indicates a location on or near the university campus.

The word normal in the university's name derives from a now archaic usage of the word "normal" seen only in the term "normal school": that of a norm-setting institution setting for future teachers.

MTC is the abbreviation which refers to the Mandarin Training Center.