Formerly called Kaohsiung Polytechnic Institute (KPI), I-Shou University (ISU) was established in 1986 by Chairman I-Shou Lin of E United Group to commemorate his mother as well as to benefit the villages and towns where he started his business. It was also Mr. Lin’s way of giving back to the society and accomplishing his lifelong mission of nurturing highly educated professionals for the country. With its excellent performance on teaching, research and administration, KPI was officially upgraded and renamed I-Shou University in August of 1997.

　Built on a solid foundation of sustainable and continuous development, ISU currently has ten colleges: College of Electrical & Information Engineering, College of Engineering, College of Management, International College, College of Language Arts, College of Tourism & Hospitality, College of Communication & Design, College of Medicine, College of Medical Science and
　Technology, and College of Indigenous Studies, and it works toward becoming an international comprehensive university which equally values humanities and technology as well as cultivates professionals to serve the current and future needs of the industry.

　Located in close proximity to E-Da Hospital and E-Da Cancer Hospital, the Medical Campus was opened in Yanchao District, Kaohsiung City, in 2006 to accommodate medicine-related departments, providing students with a superior learning and training environment. In addition, ISU was approved by the Ministry of Education to establish the School of Chinese Medicine for Post Baccalaureate in Academic Year 2010, and then the School of Medicine for International Students with all courses taught in English in 2013. To our greater delight, after thirteen years of efforts, the establishment of the College of Medicine was officially approved by the Ministry of Education in the same year. In 2018, ISU was formally approved to recruit state-funded students to study at the newly-established School of Medicine.

　In 2013, ISU passed the 2013 Evaluation of General Education and the Second-Cycle Program Evaluation conducted by the Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan with flying colors, making it the only university in Taiwan to pass these two evaluations at once. ISU was also awarded a substantial grant under the Program for Promoting Teaching Excellence Universities from the Ministry of Education for nine years in a row, achieving No. 1 among private comprehensive universities in southern Taiwan.

　In terms of international honors and rankings, ISU has long been widely recognized and accredited by many international organizations. In 2014, ISU was selected as one of the Top 100 Worldwide Universities Granted U.S. Utility Patents by the National Academy of Inventors; from 2015 to 2017, ISU has been named as one of the best universities by the Times Higher Education for three successive years and as one of the best universities in Asia from 2016 to 2018; in 2016, the College of Management, the College of Tourism and Hospitality, and the International College were accredited by the AASCB with one review visit; in 2017, ISU was listed in the Round University Rankings for the first time; in 2018, ISU was named not only by the Times Higher Education as one of the best universities in the Young University Rankings 2018, it was also named by the Taiwan-based Global Views Monthly as one of the best universities in the 2018 Taiwan University Rankings and awarded the Best Progress Award, achieving 14th place among comprehensive universities nationwide and No. 1 in southern Taiwan as a private comprehensive university.

　In Academic Year 2018, ISU received a substantial grant under the Higher Education Sprout Project and the University Social Responsibility Project, respectively. To show our determination to should our social responsibility, we launched a local project at the Paihe Settlement, Pingtung County, and established an office there to handle related affairs in the hopes of cementing the collaborative relationship. ISU has delivered an impressive performance on teaching for many years with the recognition and accreditation from the Ministry of Education and international institutes. In terms of internationalization, ISU took second and third place on the number of international students at bachelor’s degree programs and at all diploma-conferred programs, respectively.