National Tsing Hua University - History

History

Further information: Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholarship Program

Since American Secretary of State John Hay suggested that the US$ 30 million plus Boxer Rebellion indemnity money paid to the United States was excessive, in 1909, President Roosevelt then obtained congress approval to reduce the Qing Dynasty indemnity payment by $10.8 million USD, on the condition that the said fund was to be used as scholarship for Chinese students to study in the United States. Using this fund, the Tsinghua College (清華學堂 Qīnghuá Xuétáng) was established in Beijing, China, on 22 April 1911 on the site of a former royal garden belonging to a prince. It was first a preparatory school for students later sent by the government to study in the United States. The faculty members for sciences were recruited by the YMCA from the United States and its graduates transferred directly to American schools as juniors upon graduation. In 1925, the school established its College Department and started its research institute on Chinese Study.

In 1928, the authority officially changed its name to National Tsing Hua University (NTHU). During the Second World War in 1937, Tsinghua University along with Peking University and Nankai University, merged to form Changsha Temporary University in Changsha, and later National Southwestern Associated University in Kunming of Yunnan province. After the war, Tsinghua moved back to Beijing and resumed its operation.

During the Sino-Japanese War, the library lost 200,000 of a total of 350,000 volumes.

In 1956, National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) was reinstalled on its current campus in Hsinchu, Taiwan.Since its reinstallation, NTHU has developed from an institute focusing on Nuclear Science and Technology to that of a comprehensive research university offering degrees programs ranging from baccalaureate to doctorate in science, technology, engineering, humanities and social sciences, as well as management. NTHU has been consistently ranked as one of the premier universities in Taiwan and is widely recognized as the best incubator for future leaders in industries as well as academics. Such stellar records are particularly exemplified by the outstanding achievements of alumni, including two Nobel laureates in physics Dr. Chen-Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee, one Nobel laureate in chemistry Dr. Yuan-Tseh Lee and one Wolf Prize winner in mathematics Dr. Shiing-Shen Chern.

In recent decades, the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan has had increasingly close ties with the Tsinghua University on the mainland, and of all universities on Taiwan, the NTHU has arguably one of the strongest cooperations with universities in mainland China in terms of academic research, projects, and with the creation of programs such as the "Center for Contemporary China."

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