Now, the university has 16 colleges, with 56 departments and 152 graduate institutes, plus over 50 national and university-level research centers. The total number of students, including those enrolled at the School of Professional and Continuing Studies, has grown to over 32,000, including over 17,000 university students and 15,000 graduate students. Now, the number of graduate students at NTU almost equals the number of university students, which indicates that NTU has successfully been transformed into a research university.

NTU’s institutional predecessor was Taihoku Imperial University, founded in 1928 by the Japanese colonial administration. The first president was Shidehara Tan Tairaka Hiroshi. In 1945, the Republic of China won the war of resistance against Japan, and Taiwan was handed over to the Nationalist government of China. On November 15 of that year, Taihoku Imperial University was formally transferred to Chinese administration and renamed as National Taiwan University, with Dr. Tsung-lo Lo appointed as the first President.