This year's Chinese New Year party was held on February 22 at the university auditorium. Students, faculty, staff and retirees came out to exchange new year's wishes as well as to enjoy some live entertainment and win raffle prizes. To kick of the festival, faculty and staff members opened with belly dancing which set the mood for the rest of the program.

Newly inaugurated President Lih J. Chen first greeted faculty and staff with New Year's wishes and then went on to announce that NTHU has been given an "Excellence" rating by the Ministry of Education in its execution of the "Aiming for the Top University and Elite Research Center Development Plan". "Though not a total surprise, it is still exciting news," he said, "I attribute this as a recognition of the outstanding and diligent work of our faculty, staff and students".

President Chen also commented on NTHU's recent advancement in world university rankings. He said, "The current ranking systems, however, are not designed well enough to take all relevant factors into account. If we were to be compared with all the universities that have less than 1,000 faculty members, NTHU would have had ranked at 37^th. Following the same criteria, and comparing us with those that have less than 750 faculty members, our ranking would have been uplifted to 11^th. Thus, I believe Taiwan's vision of having a university entering the world's top ten is not only attainable, NTHU will very well be the first one to get there."

President Chen then went on to announce a new phase of the "Aiming for the Top University and Elite Research Center Development Plan" will begin in March. This new phase of the program will see the merging of National Hsinchu University of Education with NTHU. The integration could be considered as a step for the expansion of NTHU, but it is a major step and warrants careful deliberation and planning by all faculty and staff as a group. In addition, the university plans to expand its cooperation with the nearby Hsinchu Biomedical Science Park and Advanced Research Park.

After President Chen's speech, the entertainment portion of the evening continued which featured student groups including the Guitar Club and the Dance Club. They were followed by the captivating faculty chorus, featuring Vice President Yep's duet.

To round out the evening, President Chen along with the administrative staff gave a rendition of "Heart of Flower," which symbolizes the heart of an educator, who not only weaves dreams but is ready to help others to make their dreams come true.