As a museum is generally viewed as the highest hall of human knowledge and civilization, many world-renowned universities have their museums. In 1992, President Jer-Ru Maa began to evaluate the establishment of a museum on campus. For this purpose, in 1999, President Weng Zhengyi set up a promotion task force. In 2005, President Chiang Kao established the museum preparatory office. Finally, the NCKU Museum was officially inaugurated on the founding anniversary of the university in 2007 under the leadership of President Michael M. C. Lai.

The NCKU Museum comprises the main museum, the campus eco-museum, and a group of department museums. As the first national university museum officially approved by the government, it serves to help NCKU promote its education of the humanities and liberal arts, progress in its pursuit of excellence and international academic ranking.

Before the inauguration of the NCKU Museum, NCKU held two exhibitions respectively in 1998 and 1999, titled “The Dawn of the Century: Sculptures in NCKU” and “The Exhibition of Bo-Yih Country House Collection: Old Lifestyles in Taiwan”. The events highlighted a transformation of NCKU to a university promoting humanities, cultures and arts across its campus.

In 2007, under the commission of the then vice president for international affairs Huey-Jen Su, Dean Min-fu Hsu of the College of Planning and Design acted as the principal investigator to implement a research project titled “A Study on the Cooperation between Taiwan Provincial College of Engineering Technology and Purdue University during the U.S.-Aid Period”. Upon completion, the research results were exhibited at the NCKU Museum in 2009, marking the first presence of the university museum on the global stage. Dignitaries attending the opening ceremony of the exhibition included the dean and professors of the College of Engineering at Purdue University, and AIT representatives from Kaohsiung Branch Office. The NCKU Museum has since become a window to the world and a starting point for domestic and international visitors to come to see Tainan and National Cheng Kung University.

While inviting visitors from all over the world, the NCKU Museum has also managed to reach out and hold exhibitions overseas. The exhibition titled “I C Taiwan” (I see Taiwan) was a huge success in Czech during 2015-2016. Based on NCKU’s research results together with related industrial achievements and cultures, this exhibition boasted an interdisciplinary integration of research, industries, religion and architecture, allowing Taiwan to be internationally visible as a country with innovative industries, a long history and cultural diversity. In the following year, NCKU received the UMAC Award (2nd place) from the International Council of Museums Committee for University Museums and Collections in recognition of the exhibition at the NCKU Museum.

The NCKU Museum has aspired to connect with the world and distinguish itself as a museum with the distinctive characteristics of NCKU and as an integral part of NCKU in its development toward a top university. Based in the ancient capital of Tainan, the NCKU Museum engages internally in communication, data collection, research and preservation of historical relics on campus to document a comprehensive school history, and reaches outwardly to connect with the world, aiming to be a platform for NCKU alumni to learn from the past and look forward to the future.