Development Characteristics
The National University of Kaohsiung (NUK) is located in the Nan-Tzu district of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.
The Department of Applied Chemistry was established in the year of 2001, only one year after the university was founded. In the fall of 2010, there will be approximately 200 full-time students enrolled in graduate and undergraduate programs. After graduating, students pursue their post-graduate degrees either in Taiwan or overseas, while some students start their chemistry career in the vast opportunities in government, semiconductor, or pharmaceutical companies.
The master’s program was initiated in 2007 with a total of 30 students. Currently there are 11 full-time faculty members with an excellent history of research, industrial project collaborations and teaching excellence. Some of the professors provide lectures in English which enables our students to read current chemistry literature faster with increased comprehension.
A function of the Department of Applied Chemistry is to support the increasing demands of the chemical related workforce of both the Taiwanese government and the local industries. In addition, we aim to establish fruitful collaborations between companies in the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) and the greater Kaohsiung area. Since many of the companies in the STSP are developing electronics, optoelectronics, and biotechnological products, they will require many well trained and well rounded chemists. Our goal is to provide these companies with highly marketable, well trained chemists ready to contribute to their teams.
As the traditional chemical industries (for example: petroleum, metallurgy, and plastics) in the greater Kaohsiung area are increasing their research and development teams, the need for students with advanced degrees in rapidly increasing demand, but the supply is low. With the collaboration of local industries, we have developed our academic curriculum which is focused on training young chemists that can complete independent research and development projects.
Part of this Applied Technologies curriculum includes courses that include but is not limited to electronic, optoelectronic, and biotechnology courses. In addition, the Applied Technologies curriculum offers several intramural courses for the students such as courses offered in green manufacturing and chemistry, bioinorganic chemistry, nanotechnology, semiconductor processing, advanced materials, and material chemistry.

Undergraduate Curriculum
The minimum requirement for graduation is 128 credits, including 65 credits in the core courses. The design of the academic program includes not only the basic training in chemistry but also the ability of many elective courses (grouped as intramural courses) such as green and nanotechnology, green chemistry, semiconductor processing, advanced material processing, and material chemistry programs.