National Dong Hwa University

National Dong Hwa University was founded on July 1, 1994, as the first comprehensive university in eastern Taiwan and the first national university established after the lifting of martial law. Its main campus in Shoufeng Township spans 251 hectares — the second-largest of any Taiwanese university — and today enrolls roughly 10,000 students, including more than 1,000 international students, across numerous English-taught programs. But NDHU's story in Hualien City itself runs much deeper: its Meilun Campus traces back to October 27, 1947, when it was founded as Taiwan Provincial Hualien Normal School, the very first normal school established in Taiwan after the war. That institution moved to the Meilun area in 1959, was elevated to National Hualien University of Education in 2005, and was merged into NDHU in 2008 — folding nearly six decades of independent history into the university's present-day identity.

國立東華大學創立於1994年7月1日，是東台灣第一所綜合大學，也是解嚴後成立的第一所國立大學。壽豐鄉主校區佔地251公頃，為全台大學校地面積第二大，目前學生總數約1萬人，其中包含逾1,000名國際學生，並開設多項全英語授課學程。然而，東華大學在花蓮市本身的歷史其實更為深遠：其美崙校區可追溯至1947年10月27日創立的「台灣省立花蓮師範學校」——這是台灣戰後成立的第一所師範學校。該校於1959年遷至美崙地區，2005年升格為「國立花蓮教育大學」，2008年併入東華大學，將近一甲子的獨立辦學歷史融入了今日東華大學的一部分。