In 1955, the Ministry of Education, adhering to the central government’s policy of “teachers first, normal education as priority,” proposed upgrading the Taiwan Provincial Teachers College to a university. The news immediately received strong public support. After deliberation by the Taiwan Provincial Government Committee, taking into account factors like the academic standards required of a normal university and directives from the central government, official approval for restructuring was granted on June 5 of the same year, turning Taiwan Provincial Teachers College into the first normal university in Taiwan. After the restructuring, the school was divided into three colleges—Education, Liberal Arts, and Science—with a total of 12 departments, and Dean Liu Chen took on the position of president.
After that, the university continued to flourish and growin scale under the leadership of three presidents, Liu Chen, Tu Yuan-Tsai, and Sun Kang-Tseng. By the next restructuring in 1967, the university had three colleges, three graduate institutes, 16 departments, two specialized training courses, and a night school program. During this period, the number of students increased from just over 1,000 to nearly 7,000. That year, a total of 8,554 students graduated from daytime programs and 987 from the night school program, including 167 with a master’s degree or higher—an outstanding contribution to the preparation of teachers for secondary and higher education. In 1967, as Taipei City was restructured into a special municipality, official approval was granted for the university to be restructured into National Taiwan Normal University to align with the administrative adjustment.