The National Taiwan University of Science and Technology was established on August 1, 1974, as the first higher education institution of its kind within our nation's technical and vocational education system. By extending this system to the highest level, this new school was intended to meet the need created by our rapid economic and industrial development for highly trained engineers and managers. The campus, located in Taipei at 43 Keelung Rd., Sec. 4, covers an area of about 15 hectares. Current enrollment includes 4,822 undergraduates and 3,953 graduate students with 328 full-time faculty.
On attaining university status in 1997, the school reorganized itself into the following five colleges: engineering, electrical and computer engineering, management, design, and liberal arts and social sciences. Our departments include mechanical engineering, polymer engineering, construction engineering, chemical engineering, electronic engineering, electrical engineering, computer science and information engineering, industrial management, business administration, information management, architecture, industrial and commercial design, and applied foreign languages. We also have graduate schools in engineering, automation and control, materials science and technology, management, finance, design, and technical and vocational education. In addition, our humanities department handles courses in the humanities and social sciences, general education department handles courses in the laws, music, and environmental protection, while the teacher education center trains teachers for our nation's technical and vocational high schools. Altogether we have twenty separate academic teaching units which accept students into undergraduate, master's and doctoral programs.
Our university's undergraduate division has two-year, four-year and continuing education programs. The two-year upper division program accepts graduates of technical junior colleges, while the four-year program seeks applicants from general and technical senior high schools. Continuing education programs are offered in the evenings by the departments of electronic engineering, mechanical engineering, construction engineering, and applied foreign languages to those who are currently employed. Students who successfully complete the requirements in any of these three undergraduate programs are awarded the bachelor's degree.
Our master's degree programs began accepting students in 1979. Those with a bachelor's degree or its equivalent in related fields from schools here or abroad are eligible to take the entrance exam. In addition, to encourage those already long in the workforce to advance their education, certain departments in our university also offer continuing education master's programs in the evening. Students in these graduate programs who have successfully completed all the requirements, including a thesis and defense, are awarded a master's degree.
In 1982 we started to offer doctoral programs to holders of a master's degree or its equivalent from schools here or abroad, and as with the master's program. From the year 2001, certain departments will also accept students into doctoral programs in our continuing education division. Students in any of these doctoral programs who have successfully completed all the requirements, including a thesis and defense, will be awarded the doctorate.
To date, a total of 45,648 students have graduated from the university's undergraduate and graduate programs and are employed all over Taiwan. Among these graduates, only a small percentage has pursued studying abroad. The overwhelming majority have devoted themselves to the various aspects of our nation's economic development, to which many of our alumni are making important contributions. Because our graduates combine a solid theoretical foundation, abundant practical experience, and a professional attitude to their work, they are much in demand with both public and private enterprises.
