NTU is the most prestigious comprehensive university in Taiwan and one of the top-ranked universities in Asia. It consists of 11 colleges, 56 departments, 111 graduate institutes, over 60 research centers and a school of professional education and continuing studies.

The University was founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as the seventh of the Imperial Universities, Taihoku Imperial University, to serve under the purpose 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 as National Taiwan University on November 15, 1945, with the root of liberal tradition from Peking University by former NTU President Fu Ssu-nien