Introduction (Established in 1954. Renamed in 1999)

    Kaohsiung Medical University (KMU) sits in the heart of Kaohsiung, a world-class industrial port city with the population of 2.8 million residents, which makes it the second largest city in Taiwan. KMU, established in 1954, is the first private medical college in Taiwan. It consists of seven colleges and is the only school that provides the post baccalaureate program in medicine in Taiwan. KMU is also currently running Dual-Degree programs with the Faculty of Pharmacy, Upsalla University, Sweden, the University of Szeged, Hungary and a dual PH.D program with University of California, Irvine. By September of 2013, there are 5,790 university students and 1,211 post-graduate students including 365 international students.

    Among all the medical universities in Taiwan, KMU is the only university that was honored as a model for teaching excellence in 2013 by the Taiwan Ministry of Education (MOE) and all departments have been accredited by Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT). Currently, KMU has five research centers: (1) Center for Infectious Disease and Cancer Research, (2) Research Center for Natural Product and New Drug, (3) Research Center for Biomarker and Biotech Drug Innovation, (4) Gerontology and Geriatric Medical Searching Center, (5) Orthopaedic Research Center. KMU has distinguished performance in the following six fields: clinical medicine; pharmacology and toxicology; agricultural sciences; social sciences; chemistry; and botany and zoology, which are ranked among top 1% of universities in the world. Furthermore, KMU has allocated abundant resources to the cooperation between industry and university; as a result, MoE has acknowledged it as one of the top private universities with excellent achievements in both academia-industry cooperation and intellectual property each year between 2009 and 2011.

    KMU has 3 affiliated teaching hospitals with 2,634 beds in total. Our medical professional teams provide the public with comprehensive care. Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital, the medical center and the oldest first-class teaching hospital established in 1979, along with the other two regional hospitals, has been providing medical trainees with integrated trainings over the last few decades. In order to increase resources, Kaohsiung Medical University has established a long-term collaboration with National Sun Yat-sen University through the “The Aim for the Top University Alliance” project. This cooperation integrates the diverse resources of two prominent universities, not only enhancing KMU’s teaching and research but also turning the two universities into a combined think tank for Kaohsiung city. 

    Since the founding of KMU, 26 National Awards for Outstanding Contributions to Medical Services laureates were KMU alumni. The academic staffs of its global health program have trained many medical experts and clinical professionals in developing countries around the world, including Solomon Islands, St. Lucia, Haiti, Guatemala and Gambia. With our relentless efforts over the past 60 years, KMU family continues the faith in educating health professionals, providing comprehensive medical care to the public and eliminating health disparities.