Fu Jen Catholic University

Fu Jen Catholic University is a private Catholic university in Xinzhuang, New Taipei City, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1925 in Beijing at the request of Pope Pius XI and re-established in Taiwan in 1961 at the request of Pope John XXIII.
Fu Jen has consists of twelve colleges and schools, among which are several of Taiwan's first or only academic units in Italian language, info-management, museology, religious studies, philosophy. The campus is served by Fu Jen University Station, Taiwan's first metro station named after a university.
Fu Jen is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit-affiliated institution of higher education in the Sinophone world, under the direct authority of the Congregation for Catholic Education of the Holy See. It is also a non-state actor of Track II diplomacy in the Holy See–Taiwan relations. Therefore, Fu Jen has [|special importance internationally] and is known for its strong ties with the Roman Curia. In the past nearly one hundred years of history, the Benedictine, the Verbites, and the Jesuits from all over the world have participated in the management of the university.
The university has the nation's first business school there with AACSB accreditation and also the medical college was the earliest to promote PBL as pedagogy for medical education. Fu Jen alumni include Premier Lin Chuan, former First Lady of China Wang Guangmei, and politicians in the Legislative Yuan.

History

Early history

The institution was originally established in Beijing in 1925 by the Benedictines of St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, at the request of the Holy See, with Archabbot Aurelius Stehle serving as chancellor. Fu Jen, then commonly known as the Catholic University of Peking, was itself a successor to the Fu Jen Academy, which was created through the efforts of Catholic scholars Ma Xiangbo and Ying Lianzhi. The university's first president was the American missionary George Barry O'Toole, OSB. He was succeeded by Chen Yuan, a Chinese Protestant and renowned historian, who remained university president until the school's forced closure by the Chinese Communist government in 1952.
In 1933 the Benedictines in the United States, in the midst of the Great Depression, were no longer able to sustain Fu Jen's mission. Administration of the university passed to the Society of the Divine Word in Germany. Its affiliation with Germany, an ally of Imperial Japan, helped protect university personnel from extreme brutality inflicted elsewhere by occupying Imperial Japanese soldiers during the Sino-Japanese War.

After World War II

Since the university's operation had not been interrupted by the war, it quickly became one of China's top science programs. Well-known scientists such as Chien Shih-Liang taught at Fu Jen, and graduates such as Lee C. Teng and Wang Guangmei became famous alumni. On December 24, 1945, Thomas Tien Ken-sin, the university chairman, was made a cardinal. The following year, the School of Agriculture was added and preparations for the School of Medicine began. Also in the same year, the first Taiwan Alumni Association of Fu Jen was established in Dadu, Taichung, Taiwan.
After the Communists assumed power in China in 1949, religious organisations, including the Catholic Church, began to be systematically repressed. In 1952 this intensified and the government merged Fu Jen with the Beijing Normal University, Peking University, Renmin University, China University of Political Science and Law, and Central University of Finance and Economics. Under Mao Zedong's arrangement, Chen Yuan, the former president of Fu Jen, was transferred to the Normal University as the new president.

Cold War era

Although the Taiwan Provincial Government promised to donate land near Yuanshan Area in Taipei in 1948 to serve as the school site for Fu Jen to move to Taiwan, the Roman headquarters of the Society of the Divine Word soon ordered the suspension of all activities. The following year, the university's American representative Rev. Ralph Thyken, S.V.D. came to Tokyo, Japan, to prepare for the establishment of a new Nagoya Catholic University, which is now Nanzan University. Until the Holy See formally ordered the university's re-establishment in Taiwan, the history of Fu Jen was interrupted for about ten years.
Fu Jen Catholic University was re-established in 1961 in Taiwan, and Paul Yu Pin, the former Ordinary of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Nanjing, was appointed as the new president by Pope John XXIII. The new school opened under the auspices of the Chinese Regional Bishops' Conference, the Society of Jesus, and the Society of the Divine Word.
The new Fu Jen's academics sprouted from Western history, medieval philosophy, Christian thought, and European languages. It is the only comprehensive university in Taiwan that fully integrates Western thought, history, language, religion, and art. Since the 1960s, the university's philosophical tradition has been Scholasticism and Paul Yu Pin's "Three Kinds of Knowing", focusing on the development of a Catholic philosophy that incorporates Confucianism and opposing the "relativism hegemony".
During the thirty years of the Cold War, many Western priests and nuns were sent to teach at the university and imported advanced scholarship into Taiwan. Many professors have been commended for this in recent years, such as Daniel Ross from the United States, Leopoldo Vicente from Spain, Marcina Stawasz from Poland, etc.

Modern era

In 1997, the 14th Dalai Lama came to Fu Jen to hold a Dharma promotion conference and held talks with Taiwan Governor James Soong in the university president’s office.
Fu Jen has expanded rapidly since the 1990s. The number of students and social influence has long maintained the top five in the country, and the number of colleges has been closely following the National Taiwan University. So far in the 21st century, the university has since grown to comprise twelve colleges and schools and a hospital. In 2001, Fu Jen has been the first college in Taiwan that actively reduces tuition and fees.
Fu Jen Catholic University Hospital was opened in September 2017. The College of Medicine can be used as a conduit for cooperation between different academic disciplines, and assume a leading role in bringing together the colleges of biotechnology, chemistry, physics, engineering, management, and foreign languages. The establishment of a completely new curriculum and unique program will include training in hospital management and medical translation, research in laser technology and biotechnology, integration of Western and Chinese medicine, and robotic surgery.

Ideal and governance

The university motto, 真、善、美、聖 , expresses four ideals: truth, goodness, beauty and sanctity.
The laurel wreath symbolizes honor and peace while the twelve stars signify the Virgin Mary. The cross represents the Christian faith. The two colors on the shield suggest Christ's dual nature as the rounded shape of the shield recalls the Sacred Heart. The Latin words on the banner beneath the emblem, the university motto, express the four ideals of the university while the three folds of the banner suggest the Trinity.
Based on the Christian faith, the university president clearly supports the abolition of the death penalty, opposes abortion, and opposes the utilitarianization of higher education.

Impact

Relying on the authority of the Vatican and the Society of the Divine Word, Fu Jen, then known as the Catholic University of Peking, was the only university in Beijing that was not taken over and controlled by Empire of Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In the white terror period of the cold war, Fu Jen was able to prevent the Kuomintang regime from interfering in school affairs and protect the students' freedom of speech under the serious concern of the Secretariat of State.
Fu Jen Catholic University belongs to the International Federation of Catholic Universities under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. After the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 came into effect in 1971, Fu Jen is the only university in Taiwan that has continuously participated in UNESCO for a long time. In the official Holy See–Taiwan relations, the university has repeatedly promoted substantial exchanges between the two countries. All the traditional Taiwanese ambassadors to the Holy See will be awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Fu Jen after leaving office. All the papal nuncio in Taiwan will also participate in the annual university opening ceremony.
The appointment and removal of the post of Fu Jen university president is a matter of inquiry by the secretary of state of the Holy See, and has been compared with the membership of the United Nations of the Republic of China. The issue of the internal reorganization of Fu Jen has also widely affected the intervention of the Ministry of Education of the two countries and the papal nuncio to Taiwan.
The chairman or the president of the university has always accompanied the president of Taiwan to visit the Holy See. In 2005, under the intervention of Fu Jen, the seat of the Taiwanese president was placed in the first row of heads of state, ahead of the US vice president Dick Cheney and German chancellor Angela Merkel. In 2013, the university further designated the products of the Fu Jen alumni's enterprise Franz-porcelains as the official national gift, which were presented to Pope Francis and the retired Pope Benedict XVI respectively.

Academics

The university at present comprises 12 colleges with more than 25,000 students.

College of Liberal Arts
*Department of Chinese Literature
*Department of History
*Department of Philosophy
College of Fine Arts
*Department of Music
*Department of Applied Arts
*Department of Landscape Architecture
*Bachelor's degree program of Art and Cultural Creation
College of Communication
*Department of Communication Arts
*Department of Journalism & Communication Studies
*Department of Advertising & Public Relations
*Graduate Institute of Mass Communication
College of Education
*Department of Physical Education
*Department of Library and Information Science
*Graduate of Educational Leadership and Development
*Program of Sport Recreation Management
College of Fashion and Textiles
*Department of Textiles and Clothing
*Graduate Institute of Museum Studies
*MA Program in Brand and Fashion Management
College of Medicine
*School of Medicine
*Department of Nursing
*Department of Public Health
*Department of Clinical Psychology
*Department of Occupational Therapy
*Department of Respiratory Therapy
*Graduate Institute of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Science
*MS Program in Transdisciplinary Long Term Care
*MS Program in Biomedical Big Data Analysis
*Ph.D. Program in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology
College of Science and Engineering
*Department of Mathematics
*Department of Physics
*Department of Chemistry
*Department of Life Science
*Department of Computer Science & Information Engineering
*Department of Electrical Engineering
*Bachelor's Program in Medical Informatics and Innovative Applications
*Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Engineering
*Bachelor Program in Software Engineering and Digital Innovation Application
*Bachelor Program in Artificial Intelligence and Information Security
College of Foreign Languages and Literatures
*Department of English Language and Literature
*Department of German Language and Culture
*Department of French Language and Culture
*Department of Spanish Language and Culture
*Department of Japanese Language and Culture
*Department of Italian Language and Culture
*Graduate Institute of Cross-Cultural Studies
College of Human Ecology
*Department of Child and Family Studies
*Department of Restaurant, Hotel and Institutional Management
*Department of Food Sciences
*Department of Nutrition Science
*Ph. D. Program in Nutrition and Food Science
School of Law
*Department of Law
*Department of Financial and Economic Law
*Graduate Department of Law
College of Social Science
*Department of Sociology
*Department of Social Work
*Department of Economics
*Department of Religious Studies
*Department of Psychology
*Bachelor's Program in Catholic Studies
*Master Program in Non-Profit Organization Management
College of Management
*Department of Business Administration
*Department of Accounting
*Department of Statistics and Information Science
*Department of Finance and International Business
*Department of Information Management
*Graduate Institute of Business Administration
*MS Program of Technology Management
*Master Program of Global Entrepreneurial Management
*Master of Global Entrepreneurial Management
*MBA Program in International Management
*Master's Program in Social Enterprise
*Bachelor's Program of Business Management