National University of Kaohsiung (abbreviation:NUK)(國立高雄大學) is located in Nanzih (楠梓區), Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. The university is close to the Nanzih interchange of National Highway 1 and 30 minutes from the Kaohaiung train station. The university was founded in February 2000 and aims to narrow the gap in education between southern and northern Taiwan and promote the economy of the southern area. There are seventeen departments in the university, including Western Languages and Literature, East Asian Language and Literature, Kinesiology, Health and Leisure Studies, Law, Government and Law, Economic and Financial Law, Applied Economics, Applied Mathematics, Applied Chemistry, Electrical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Life Sciences, and Asia-Pacific Industrial and Business Management, Traditional Arts, Finance, Information Management, and Applied physics. Among these departments, Asia-Pacific Industrial and Business Management is especially designed for cultivating industrial elites. There are eleven departments of graduate school. In 2006, the number of contestants of graduate school entrance exams increased 9% compared with 2005.