The Hungkuang University College of Nursing has been a part of the fabric of Central Taiwan since 1967 when the founder, Dr. Yu Lin Wang, established the Hungkuang Junior College of Nursing in Taichung, Taiwan. Since then, the school has been offering the Five-Year Junior College nursing and midwife program. The school also began to offer the Two-Year Junior College Day Program and Night Program in 1984 and 1989 respectively. In compliance of the governmental regulations, the school discontinued the nurse midwife program in 1991 while continued the Five-Year and the Two-Year Junior College Nursing Programs.
In 1997, the school changed its name to Hungkuang Institute of Technology and began offering a Two-Year Bachelor’s Degree Nursing Program to provide educational advancement opportunities for graduates of junior college nursing programs. In 1998, the Department of Nursing then discontinued its Two-Year Junior College Nursing Program and began offering a Four-Year Bachelor’s Degree program. In 1999, the Department of Nursing began offering a Two-Year Bachelor’s Degree program to allow working nurse clinicians to obtain their nursing bachelor’s degrees. In 2009, the Department of Nursing began offering the Master’s Degree Nursing Program with Concentration in Nurse Practitioner (NP): the first program of its kind in Central Taiwan.
In 2015, the Department of Nursing was approved by the Ministry of Education to offer the Doctoral of Philosophy (Ph.D.) program. In 2016, the school admitted its first PhD student while offering the Post Baccalaureate Nursing Program aimed to combat the nursing shortage through educating the second-degree-seeking students to become future nursing professionals.
To continue the school’s competitive advantage, reorganization of the school was strategically implemented in 2017 to respond to the rapid changes in industrial structure, global demands, aging population due to declining fertility rates and rising life expectancy, and the education reform in our nation. After the reorganization, the Department of Nursing was upgraded to the College of Nursing in July of 2017 with emphasis on the school’s mission “Caring for Humanity, Cherishing Life”.
Currently, there are three Departments in the College of Nursing; they are the Department of Five-Year Junior College Nursing Program, the Department of Bachelor, Master and Doctoral Programs, and the Department of Post Baccalaureate Program. With multiple program opportunities, the Hungkuang University College of Nursing continues to educate our students to become exceptional nursing professionals.