Tunghai University

Tunghai University (THU, Chinese: 東海大學) is a private Christian university in the Xitun District of Taichung, Taiwan, China, founded in 1955 by the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia as the successor to the Christian colleges closed in mainland China after 1949.东海大学（Tunghai University，简称 THU）是中国台湾台中市西屯区的一所私立基督教大学，1955 年由亚洲基督教高等教育联合董事会创办，用以承接 1949 年后在中国大陆停办的教会大学。

It is organised into nine colleges and thirty-six departments, occupies a 329-acre campus at the foot of Dadu Mountain, and is known for its liberal arts curriculum and for the Luce Memorial Chapel designed by I. M. Pei.该校设有九个学院与三十六个学系，校园位于大度山麓，占地 329 英亩，以博雅教育传统与贝聿铭设计的路思义教堂著称。

The university appears in the 1201-1400 band of the QS World University Rankings 2027 and the 1601-1800 band of the 2027 Times Higher Education table, ranks 1,495th in the 2026-2027 U.S. News global listing, and is absent from the 2026 ShanghaiRanking main list.该校在 2027 年 QS 世界大学排名中处于 1201 至 1400 区间，在 2027 年泰晤士高等教育世界大学排名中处于 1601 至 1800 区间，在 2026 至 2027 年度《美国新闻与世界报道》全球榜单中位列第 1495 位，未进入 2026 年软科世界大学学术排名主榜。

History

• After the Chinese Civil War the Communist government closed the Christian universities on the mainland, and Christian leaders in Taiwan asked the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia to plant a new university on the island. The board had backed twelve Christian colleges in mainland China before 1949, and Tunghai was conceived as their successor, carrying their curricula, faculties and religious mission to Taiwan.国共内战结束后，大陆的教会大学被停办，台湾的基督教领袖遂请求亚洲基督教高等教育联合董事会在这座岛上另建一所大学。该董事会在 1949 年之前曾支持中国大陆十二所教会大学，东海被设想为这些学校的继承者，把其课程、师资与宗教使命带到台湾。
• The board resolved in 1953 that a Christian university should be a permanent element in Taiwan, a decision that turned a missionary aspiration into an institutional plan with American funding.董事会于 1953 年决议，基督教大学应当成为台湾的常设机构，这一决定把传教愿景转化为有美方资助的建校计划。
• The Taichung City Government donated 345 acres on the Dadu Plateau, and planning for the campus, its layout and its architecture began that year under I. M. Pei as chief architect, assisted by Chen Chi-kwan.台中市政府捐出大度山台地 345 英亩土地，同年由贝聿铭担任总建筑师、陈其宽协助，开始规划校园布局与建筑。
• Ground was broken on 11 November 1953 in the presence of U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon, an event that tied the new university to American Cold War support for Asian higher education.1953 年 11 月 11 日举行破土典礼，美国副总统理查德·尼克松亲临，这一事件把这所新大学与美国冷战时期对亚洲高等教育的支持联系在一起。
• The first class was selected in the summer of 1954 from a pool of 5,800 applicants, and the original faculty numbered 35 scholars drawn from mainland China, Taiwan and the United States.1954 年夏，首届学生从 5800 名申请者中选出，创校教师共 35 人，分别来自中国大陆、台湾与美国。
• The university was formally consecrated on 2 November 1955, the date it still marks as its foundation day, and it became the first private university established in Taiwan.该校于 1955 年 11 月 2 日正式举行建校典礼，这一天至今仍被定为校庆日，它也成为台湾第一所私立大学。
• Time magazine reported the opening in November 1955 under the headline The Pioneers and described Tunghai as the first Christian university in Formosa's history, a phrase the university still quotes.《时代》杂志在 1955 年 11 月以「先驱者」为题报道该校开办，称东海为「福尔摩沙历史上第一所基督教大学」，这句话至今仍被校方引用。
• The campus plan by Pei and Chen drew at once on Chinese courtyard composition and on the American liberal arts college model, a hybrid that influenced later campus design in Taiwan.贝聿铭与陈其宽的校园规划同时借鉴中国合院布局与美国文理学院模式，这种混合方案影响了此后台湾的校园设计。
• Tseng Yueh-nung, a scholar of Chinese literature, became the first president in 1955 and led the university through its first years of building and enrolment.中国文学学者曾约农于 1955 年出任首任校长，带领学校度过建校与招生的最初岁月。
• Wu Teh Yao succeeded him in 1958 and presided for fourteen years, a tenure in which the college structure, the general education requirement and the campus landscape took shape.吴德耀于 1958 年接任校长并主持校务十四年，其间学院架构、通识教育要求与校园景观逐步成形。
• The Luce Memorial Chapel was completed in 1963, funded by Time and Life publisher Henry R. Luce in memory of his father Henry W. Luce and designed by Chen Chi-kwan with I. M. Pei in the form of four intersecting hyperbolic paraboloids.路思义教堂于 1963 年落成，由《时代》与《生活》杂志出版人亨利·卢斯出资、以其父亨利·温特斯·卢斯命名，由陈其宽与贝聿铭共同设计，造型为四个相交的双曲抛物面。
• The Priest Bell Tower was built in 1966 at the entrance to the chapel and named for Elsie Priest, the American accounting adviser who helped organise the university's early administration.牧师钟楼建于 1966 年，位于教堂入口处，以曾协助创校初期行政的美国会计顾问艾尔西·普里斯特（Elsie Priest）命名。
• Tunghai's student body reached 12,971 in 1995 with a student-to-professor ratio of 18 to 1, a scale far beyond the 500 to 600 students its founders had envisaged and among the largest in central Taiwan at the time.1995 年该校学生达 12971 人，师生比为 18 比 1，规模已远超创办人最初设想的五六百人，当时在台湾中部各大学中位居前列。
• The university's music, architecture and fine arts departments grew out of the liberal arts model of the 1960s, and its architecture programme became one of the most visible in central Taiwan.该校的音乐、建筑与美术系科源自 1960 年代的博雅教育模式，其建筑专业后来成为台湾中部最具影响力的建筑教育之一。
• In 2014 Tunghai opened its English-taught International College with bachelor's programmes in international business administration and sustainability science and engineering.2014 年，东海大学设立全英语授课的国际学院，开设国际企业管理与永续科学与工程等学士项目。
• The Priest Bell Tower was registered as a municipal monument by the Taichung City Cultural Assets Office in 2017, formal protection that followed decades of use as a campus landmark.2017 年，牧师钟楼由台中市文化资产处登记为市定古迹，这座使用数十年的校园地标由此获得正式保护。
• On 25 April 2019 the Ministry of Culture declared the Luce Memorial Chapel a national monument, the highest heritage designation for a building of the post-1945 era in Taiwan.2019 年 4 月 25 日，文化部将路思义教堂指定为国定古迹，这是台湾战后建筑所获得的最高文资身份。
• In 2020 the university placed third among all Taiwanese universities and first among private ones in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, which assess performance against the UN Sustainable Development Goals.2020 年，该校在泰晤士高等教育影响力排名中位列全台第三、私立第一，该榜单以联合国可持续发展目标为评估框架。
• The International College began admitting students in 2020 who spend their first two years learning Chinese before declaring a major in their junior year.国际学院自 2020 年起招收先修两年中文、到大三再选定主修的学生。
• By 2022 the university offered 36 bachelor's programmes, 35 master's programmes, 15 doctoral programmes and 16 dual-degree programmes across its nine colleges.到 2022 年，该校九个学院共开设 36 个学士项目、35 个硕士项目、15 个博士项目与 16 个双学位项目。
• As of 2025 its alumni included fourteen academicians of Academia Sinica, the third largest count among Taiwanese universities, alongside two members of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.截至 2025 年，该校校友中有十四位中央研究院院士，数量居台湾各大学第三，另有两位美国国家工程院院士。

Academics

• Tunghai is organised into nine colleges: Arts, Science, Engineering, Management, Social Sciences, Agriculture and Health, Law, Fine Arts and Creative Design, and the International College.东海大学设有九个学院，即文学院、理学院、工学院、管理学院、社会科学院、农学院与健康学院、法律学院、创意设计暨艺术学院以及国际学院。
• The colleges are subdivided into 36 academic departments, and the university reported 36 bachelor's, 35 master's and 15 doctoral programmes in 2022.各学院下设 36 个学系，校方 2022 年公布的数据为 36 个学士项目、35 个硕士项目与 15 个博士项目。
• Its 2026 QS profile records 15,438 students and 741 academic staff, including 1,312 international students, a ratio that keeps classes small by Taiwanese private-university standards.该校 2026 年 QS 档案记录在校生 15438 人、专任教师 741 人，其中国际学生 1312 人，按台湾私立大学的标准衡量，这一比例使班级规模相对较小。
• The College of Arts houses Chinese literature, foreign languages and literature, history, Japanese language and culture, philosophy and a graduate programme in teaching Chinese as a second language.文学院下设中国文学、外国语言与文学、历史、日本语言文化、哲学等学系，以及华语教学硕士项目。
• The College of Science covers life science, chemistry, mathematics and physics, and hosts international doctoral programmes in biomedical and materials science and in biodiversity.理学院涵盖生命科学、化学、数学与物理，并设有生物医学与材料科学、生物多样性两个国际博士项目。
• The College of Engineering teaches chemical and materials engineering, computer science, environmental science, industrial engineering and electrical engineering.工学院开设化学与材料工程、计算机科学、环境科学、工业工程与电机工程等专业。
• The College of Management offers accounting, business administration, finance, information management, international business and statistics, together with executive and global MBA programmes.管理学院开设会计、企业管理、财务金融、信息管理、国际贸易与统计等学系，并设有高阶经营管理硕士与全球企业管理硕士项目。
• The College of Social Sciences comprises economics, political science, public management and policy, social work and sociology.社会科学院由经济学、政治学、公共管理与政策、社会工作与社会学等系组成。
• The College of Agriculture and Health teaches animal science, food science and hospitality management, and works with the university's experimental farm.农学院与健康学院开设动物科学、食品科学与餐旅管理等专业，并与校属实验农场合作。
• The College of Fine Arts and Creative Design covers fine arts, music, architecture, industrial design and landscape architecture, the disciplines for which Tunghai is best known.创意设计暨艺术学院涵盖美术、音乐、建筑、工业设计与景观建筑，这些学科也是东海大学最负盛名的领域。
• The College of Law offers a single law department with undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, and prepares students for the Taiwanese bar examinations.法律学院设有一个法律学系，开设本科与研究生课程，并为学生应考台湾律师资格考试做准备。
• The International College teaches international business administration, sustainability science and engineering and an interdisciplinary programme, all in English.国际学院以全英语教授国际企业管理、永续科学与工程以及一个跨学科项目。
• The Center for General Education runs compulsory courses in the natural sciences, humanities, social sciences and Western classics, the core of Tunghai's liberal arts model.通识教育中心开设自然科学、人文、社会科学与西方经典等必修课程，构成东海博雅教育模式的核心。
• The Main Library, at the end of the Campus Mall, holds about 600,000 volumes, 6,515 current serials, 21,523 electronic serials and a rare-book collection.主图书馆位于校园中轴大道尽头，藏书约 60 万册，现刊 6515 种、电子期刊 21523 种，并设有善本特藏。
• Tunghai introduced general education, a student labour programme and open-stack library access to Taiwan, and these innovations were later copied by other universities on the island.东海大学在台湾率先推行通识教育、学生劳动制度与开架式图书馆，这些做法后来被岛内其他大学仿效。
• The Tunghai Experimental Farm is the largest teaching and internship farm in Taiwan, keeps about 200 dairy cows and supplies the university's milk and ice cream.东海实验农场是台湾规模最大的教学与实习农场，饲养约 200 头乳牛，为学校供应牛奶与冰淇淋。
• Tunghai is the only institution in Taiwan that runs a complete education ladder from kindergarten through primary and secondary school to doctoral study, with affiliated schools on and near the campus.东海大学是台湾唯一从幼儿园、中小学一路贯通至博士班的完整教育体系，其附属学校分布于校园内外。

Campus

• The campus occupies 329 acres, or 134 hectares, on a level plateau at the foot of Dadu Mountain in Xitun District, with its main gate at 1727, Section 4, Taiwan Boulevard.校园占地 329 英亩，合 134 公顷，位于西屯区大度山麓的台地上，正门设在台湾大道四段 1727 号。
• I. M. Pei designed the original three terraced quadrangles and four student dormitories, setting a low-rise red-brick vocabulary that later buildings followed.贝聿铭设计了最初的三个阶梯式合院与四栋学生宿舍，确立了低层红砖的建筑语汇，为后续建筑所沿用。
• The Luce Memorial Chapel stands on a hexagonal base with four curved shells rising to a ridge, a structure completed in 1963 and now a national monument.路思义教堂建在六边形基座上，四片曲面壳体向上收束成屋脊，1963 年落成，现为国定古迹。
• The four shells are separated by narrow glazed slots that admit daylight along the ridge, a detail that has made the chapel a standard case study in Taiwanese architecture courses.四片壳体之间留有狭长的玻璃天窗，使光线沿屋脊渗入室内，这一细部使该教堂成为台湾建筑课程的经典案例。
• The Priest Bell Tower of 1966 frames the approach to the chapel and is registered as a municipal monument of Taichung.1966 年建成的牧师钟楼构成通往教堂的前景，已登记为台中市市定古迹。
• Wenli Boulevard, the red-brick and grey-tile spine of the campus, links the colleges under a canopy of trees and is the setting for the university's public life.文理大道以红砖与灰瓦铺就，是贯穿校园的主轴，在林荫之下连接各学院，也是校园公共生活的舞台。
• The Main Library closes the axis at the end of the Campus Mall and provides reading rooms, group study spaces and digital collections for 15,000 students.主图书馆在校园中轴大道尽头收束轴线，为 15000 名学生提供阅览室、小组研讨空间与数字馆藏。
• The experimental farm lies within the campus and combines dairy barns, feed crops and teaching plots used by animal science and food science students.实验农场位于校园之内，由乳牛舍、饲料作物与教学田区组成，供动物科学与食品科学学生实习。
• The first four dormitories designed by Pei still house students, and most freshmen live on campus in a residential system modelled on the American liberal arts college.贝聿铭设计的最初四栋宿舍仍在使用，多数大一新生住在校内，这一住宿体系参照美国文理学院模式建立。
• The campus is served by Taiwan Boulevard, the main east-west artery of Taichung, which connects Xitun with the city centre and the high-speed rail station at Wuri, the latter about twenty minutes away by car.校园紧邻台中东西向主干道台湾大道，由此可前往市中心与位于乌日的高铁站，后者车程约二十分钟。
• Tunghai's 134-hectare site holds the chapel, the bell tower, the library and a working dairy farm within one continuous landscape, an ensemble without parallel among Taiwanese universities.东海 134 公顷的校地在一个连续的景观中容纳教堂、钟楼、图书馆与一座在运营的乳牛场，这样的组合在台湾各大学中无出其右。

Reputation

• Tunghai is placed in the 1201-1400 band of the QS World University Rankings 2027, and QS rates its research output as high in the institutional profile.东海大学在 2027 年 QS 世界大学排名中处于 1201 至 1400 区间，QS 在其机构档案中把该校科研产出评为「高」等级。
• The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2027 place the university in the 1601-1800 band.2027 年泰晤士高等教育世界大学排名将该校列于 1601 至 1800 区间。
• U.S. News ranks Tunghai 1,495th in its 2026-2027 Best Global Universities list.《美国新闻与世界报道》在 2026 至 2027 年度全球最佳大学榜单中将东海大学列于第 1495 位。
• The 2026 ShanghaiRanking Academic Ranking of World Universities does not include Tunghai in its main list.2026 年软科世界大学学术排名主榜未收录东海大学。
• The university placed third in Taiwan and first among private universities in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2020, which scores institutions against the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.该校在 2020 年泰晤士高等教育影响力排名中位居全台第三、私立第一，该榜单依据 17 项可持续发展目标为高校打分。
• Tunghai won a Sustainability Model University distinction at the 2020 Taiwan Corporate Sustainability Awards and a Golden class award in the USR Best Sustainability Project competition, shared with National Taiwan University.该校在 2020 年台湾企业永续奖中获得「永续典范大学」殊荣，并在大学社会责任最佳永续项目评选中与台湾大学同获金奖。
• Its alumni include fourteen Academia Sinica academicians, the third highest total in Taiwan, two members of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and two fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.该校校友中有十四位中央研究院院士，总数居台湾第三，另有两位美国国家工程院院士与两位美国艺术与科学院院士。
• OpenAlex indexes 12,512 works and 379,355 citations for Tunghai, with concentrations in materials science, chemistry, food science and environmental studies.OpenAlex 为该校收录 12512 项成果与 379355 次引用，主要集中在材料科学、化学、食品科学与环境研究领域。
• Tunghai is a member of the Association of Christian Universities and Colleges in Asia, the Alliance of Asian Liberal Arts Universities and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.东海大学是亚洲基督教大学协会、亚洲博雅大学联盟以及美国基督教大学理事会的成员。
• Its reputation in Taiwan rests on liberal arts teaching and campus design rather than on research volume, and it is regularly cited as the country's most beautiful university campus.该校在台湾的声誉建立在博雅教学与校园设计之上，而非科研体量，并常被评为全台最美大学校园。

Student life

• Tunghai's motto is 求真、篤信、力行, rendered as seek truth, hold faith and practise what one believes, and it shapes the compulsory general education curriculum.东海大学校训为「求真、笃信、力行」，意即追求真理、坚守信念、身体力行，并贯穿于必修的通识课程之中。
• The student labour programme requires undergraduates to clean classrooms, maintain grounds and serve in the library, an American-style work-study scheme introduced at founding.学生劳动制度要求本科生打扫教室、维护校园并到图书馆服务，这是创校时引入的美式工读制度。
• Freshmen are guaranteed a place in the dormitories, and residence life is organised around the quadrangles that Pei laid out in the 1950s.大一新生保障住宿，宿舍生活围绕贝聿铭在 1950 年代规划的合院展开。
• The Luce Memorial Chapel hosts services, concerts and the university's Christmas celebrations, and it remains the ceremonial centre of the campus.路思义教堂举办礼拜、音乐会与学校圣诞庆典，至今仍是校园的礼仪中心。
• The dairy shop by the experimental farm sells milk, ice cream and yoghurt made on campus, a tradition that dates from the farm's founding.实验农场旁的乳品小栈出售校内自制的牛奶、冰淇淋与酸奶，这一传统可追溯到农场创设之时。
• Student clubs range from mountaineering and service societies to film and photography groups, and they recruit along Wenli Boulevard at the start of each academic year.学生社团从登山社、服务性社团到电影与摄影社团不一而足，每学年伊始在文理大道招新。
• The university's general education requirement includes Western classics and Chinese thought, and every student takes courses outside their major.该校通识教育要求涵盖西方经典与中国思想，每名学生都须修读本专业以外的课程。
• Sports facilities include playing fields, tennis and basketball courts and a track, and inter-departmental tournaments structure the spring semester.体育设施包括运动场、网球场、篮球场与跑道，校内的院际比赛构成春季学期的节奏。
• The campus sits on Taiwan Boulevard, a bus corridor that puts students within reach of Taichung's night markets, museums and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts.校园位于台湾大道沿线，公交车走廊把学生与台中夜市、博物馆及国立台湾美术馆连接起来。
• Tunghai's Christmas Eve service and its spring arts festival are the two occasions when alumni return to the campus in large numbers.平安夜礼拜与春季艺术节是校友大规模返校的两个场合。

Notable people

• Tseng Yueh-nung, an educator and classical scholar, was Tunghai's first president and shaped its emphasis on Chinese humanities.曾约农是教育家与古典学者，担任东海大学首任校长，塑造了学校对中国人文的重视。
• Wu Teh Yao, president from 1958 to 1972, consolidated the college system and the general education programme that still define the university.吴德耀于 1958 至 1972 年担任校长，巩固了至今仍界定该校特色的学院体制与通识教育。
• I. M. Pei, the Chinese-American architect, planned the campus and designed the Luce Memorial Chapel with Chen Chi-kwan.华裔美国建筑师贝聿铭规划了校园，并与陈其宽共同设计路思义教堂。
• Henry R. Luce, co-founder of Time magazine, paid for the chapel in memory of his father, the missionary educator Henry W. Luce.《时代》杂志创办人之一亨利·卢斯出资兴建教堂，以纪念其父、传教士教育家亨利·温特斯·卢斯。
• Tu Weiming, a 1961 graduate, is a New Confucian philosopher and emeritus professor of Chinese history and philosophy at Harvard University.杜维明 1961 年毕业，是新儒家哲学家、哈佛大学中国历史与哲学荣休教授。
• Yang Mu, the poet and essayist, studied at Tunghai and became one of the most influential voices in modern Chinese literature.诗人与散文家杨牧曾就读于东海大学，后来成为现代中文文学最具影响力的声音之一。
• Yu Shyi-kun, a 1985 graduate, served as Premier of the Republic of China and later as a senior Democratic Progressive Party figure.游锡堃 1985 年毕业，曾任中华民国行政院院长，后成为民主进步党的重要人物。
• Pan Shih-wei, a labour law scholar and 1980s graduate, served as Minister of Labor in 2014.劳动法学者潘世伟毕业于 1980 年代，于 2014 年出任劳动部部长。
• Giddens Ko, the novelist and film director, studied at Tunghai and wrote the novel behind the film You Are the Apple of My Eye.小说家兼导演九把刀曾就读于东海大学，其小说被改编为电影《那些年，我们一起追的女孩》。
• Kevin Tsai, a 1985 graduate, became one of Taiwan's best-known television hosts through the programme Kangxi Lai Le.蔡康永 1985 年毕业，凭《康熙来了》成为台湾最知名的电视主持人之一。
• Kris Yao, a 1975 graduate, founded KRIS YAO ARTECH and designed major cultural and transport buildings in Taiwan and mainland China.姚仁喜 1975 年毕业，创办大元建筑工场，在台湾与中国大陆设计多座重要文化与交通建筑。
• Tien Hung-mao, a political scientist, served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2000 to 2002.政治学者田弘茂于 2000 至 2002 年担任外交部部长。
• Chung Ling, a writer, critic and translator, and Ho Ping, a film director, are among the arts alumni who later returned to teach.作家、评论家兼翻译家钟玲与电影导演何平，是后来返校任教的文艺界校友代表。