Taiwan’s National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University elects new president

台灣國立陽明交通大學新校長出爐

Dr. Lin Chi-hung elected as newly formed school's first leader




TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Two of Taiwan’s top-tier universities, National Chiao Tung University and National Yang Ming University, will merge and be renamed as National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) on Feb. 1, and the new school's president has just been elected.

NYCU’s Search Committee — the university’s presidential election committee that reviews candidates — elected Dr. Lin Chi-hung (林奇宏) as the school’s first president last Sunday evening (Jan. 10). After the committee process was completed, the final choice was submitted to the Ministry of Education for approval.

President-elect Dr. Lin Chi-hung, who has a PhD in biology from Yale University, is the current vice president of the University System of Taiwan (UST). He used to be the president of the New Taipei City Department of Health and the president of the Office of International Affairs at National Yang-Ming University.

As both universities have different cultures, administrations, and management systems, Dr. Lin will face numerous challenges.

NCTU is known for its rigorous engineering curriculum, while NYMU is best known for its biomedical program. The merger will allow the hybrid school to develop innovative medical applications for technologies such as robots, wearable devices, and telemedicine.

After the merger, all majors and departments from the current schools will be kept the same without any modifications, though that may be subject to change.

Altogether, the new university will have nine campuses. Most of NYMU’s current campuses are in Taipei, while NCTU’s campuses are in Hsinchu. Depending on the demand, daily shuttle buses will transport students between the Yang-Ming, Bei-man, and Kuang-Fu campuses.

Talk of a merger between the two schools began 20 years ago, but plans were only concretized in the last few years.