Self-Financing at NTU
Higher Education is crucial for national development, and is key to cultivating talents for robust and competitive economies. The higher education landscape in Taiwan has been showing rapid expansion in recent years, but government funding has yet to keep up with the growth. Meanwhile, universities abroad have been becoming more and more competitive in attracting international students. Tuition revenue from local admissions have been decreasing across the board, due to the declining birthrate in Taiwan. Since 1999, universities in Taiwan have begun to establish their own institutional funding structures to cope with their tightened budgets. Universities in Taiwan – both public and privately-funded – are tasked to source additional funding to finance themselves.
Government funding for NTU has been decreasing in recent years; currently it is not even 40% of the NTU budget. Our biggest institutional priorities, such as research and academic enrichment, talent retention, and international networking, all require significant investments. Thus it is upon us to source additional sources of funding – including donation gifts from diverse sectors.
Despite being one of the leading institutions in Taiwan, NTU has a considerably modest endowment in comparison to other institutions in Asia with similar standing, as seen in the following tables. Yet, NTU continues to lead by example by tirelessly improving its global competitiveness and carrying out its University Social Responsibility.
