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National Taiwan Normal University
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National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU or Shida) is an institution of higher learning operating on three campuses in Taipei, Taiwan.NTNU is widely recognized as one of Taiwan's elite institutions of higher education. Standards of admission are high. The university enrolls approximately 11,000 students each year. The ratio of undergraduate to graduate students is 60-40%. Approximately 1,500 students are international.
National Taiwan Normal University traces its origins to the Japanese colonial period in Taiwan.
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Encyclopedia
National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU or Shida) is an institution of higher learning operating on three campuses in Taipei, Taiwan.NTNU is widely recognized as one of Taiwan's elite institutions of higher education. Standards of admission are high. The university enrolls approximately 11,000 students each year. The ratio of undergraduate to graduate students is 60-40%. Approximately 1,500 students are international.
History
The National Taiwan Normal University traces its origins to the Japanese colonial period in Taiwan. The government established the school as Taiwan Provincial College, then renamed it 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 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.
In 1946 the incoming Kuomintang government reorganized the school as Taiwan Provincial Teachers College. Some school materials give the school's founding date as 1946 based on this transition. 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 moved toward democracy the university saw its role transformed by the Teacher Preparation Law of 1994. The law gave responsibility for teacher training to more schools and NTNU emerged as a truly comprehensive university. Faculty were hired and new departments created as course offerings and majors expanded. 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.
Today
NTNU occupies three campuses in downtown Taipei: the historic Daan 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 eight colleges:
- 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 Science
- College of Sports and Recreation
- College of Technology
(For more detail see Academic Departments, below.)
In 2006 the school published the following figures
for students enrolled and employees retained.
- Students enrolled 11,055
- Undergraduate students 6,942
- Graduate students 4,113
- International Students (including Culture Center) 1,499
- Full-time Faculty 693
- Part-time Faculty 470
- Staff 492
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 by 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 and University of British Columbia 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.
(* = graduate study only.)
College of Education
- Adult & Continuing Education
- Civic Education & Leadership
- Education
- Educational Psychology & Counseling
- Educational Policy & Administration*
- Rehabilitation Counseling*
- Social Work*
- Health Education
- Human Development & Family Education
- Information & Computer Education
- Library & Information Studies*
- Mass Communication*
- Political Science*
- Special Education
College of Fine and Applied Arts
- Design*
- Art History*
- Fine Arts
College of International Studies and Education for Overseas Chinese
- Graduate Institute of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language*
- Graduate Institute of Sinology Studies*
- Graduate Institute of European Cultures and Tourism*
- Department of East Asian Culture and Development
- Department of Applied Chinese Languages and Literature
- Department of Chinese Languages for International Students
College of Liberal Arts
- Chinese
- English
- Geography
- History
- Taiwan Culture, Languages and Literature*
- Taiwan History*
- Teaching Chinese as a Second Language*
- Translation and Interpretation*
College of Music
- Music
- Performing Arts*
- Ethnomusicology*
College of Science
- Chemistry
- Computer Science and Information Engineering
- Earth Sciences
- Electro-optical Science and Technology*
- Environmental Education*
- Life Science
- Mathematics
- Physics
- Science Education*
College of Sports and Recreation
- Athletic Science
- Exercise and Sports Sciences*
- Physical Education
- Sport and Leisure Management*
College of Technology
- Graphic Arts Communication
- Industrial Education
- Industrial Technology Education
- Institute of Applied Electronics Technology*
- Mechatronic Technology
- International Workforce Education and Development*
Nomenclature
The standard abbreviation for the National Taiwan Normal University in English is NTNU. In Mandarin Chinese it is Shida (stessing on the second syllable). The word "Shida" in many Taipei place names (Shida Night Market, Shida Road, Shida Bookstore, etc.) refers to NTNU.
The word normal in the university's name derives from a usage now unfamiliar to many English speakers. A "normal" college trains teachers. In the first decades of the twentieth century this designation was still commonly used to recognize the leading role such schools played in establishing academic standards--norms--for their communities.
MTC refers to the Mandarin Training Center.
External links
- (Chinese and English)
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- (English, Chinese, Japanese)
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