National Chiayi University (NCYU) was formed in February 2000 by merging the National Chiayi Institute of Technology (NCIT) and the National Chiayi Teachers College (NCTC). NCIT was founded in 1919 as the Chiayi Agriculture and Forestry Public School. NCTC was founded in 1957 as the Taiwan Provincial Chiayi Normal School.
By integrating the two colleges, National Chiayi University is one of the few universities in southwest Taiwan offering programs in life science, agriculture, business administration, natural science, engineering, humanities and education. The University has seven colleges with more than 43 graduate institutes and 39 departments on four campuses.