The school was established on March 21, 1990. At that time, its name was "Chung Hua Engineering College" and it had five departments: Electrical Engineering, Information Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Civil Engineering and Architecture and Urban Planning. Two years later, it was allowed to establish an Evening Division in which each department had one class. On August 30, 1994, it officially signed an inter-school cooperation contract with University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. In the same year, on December 5, it signed a letter of intent with Mississippi State Baylor University. On August 1, 1997, it was formally named "Chung Hua University."