“The Program on Bilingual Education for Students in College” (BEST) at Tatung University (TTU) is grounded in the university development project known as “The Tatung University 2026+”. The TTU BEST program aims to enhance TTU students’ proficiency through teaching empowerment, the implementation of fully English-taught General English courses, and the encouragement of students to participate in English language proficiency tests and self-directed learning. Towards the goal of being an international-friendly university by 2030, TTU aims to steadily increase the number of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) courses across faculties. The TTU BEST program is not only intended to help students acquire bilingual communication skills and enhance global mobility but also to develop a fully EMI program.  

The Executive Summary of the TTU BEST Project (2022-2023 academic year) is as follows:

1. Teachers and teaching

(1) We first established an EMI teachers community. In addition, we invited professors and experts to share their EMI teaching experience with TTU instructors. By the end of the 2023 academic year, we hosted 6 sessions of EMI workshops. 

(2) Providing two EMI teacher development programs：Cambridge Certificate in EMI Skills (21 instructors involved) and Oxford EMI Training (5 instructors involved) in enhancing both language skills and English teaching proficiency.

(3) Five incentives are implemented to encourage instructors to get more involved in EMI teaching, including adjustment of weight ratio in faculty evaluations, revising “The Regulation of the calculation of Teaching Hours and Overrun Hourly Fee of TTU Teachers” to increase the hourly pay of EMI courses, establishing an additional award category for EMI in “TTU Excellent Teaching Awards”, providing teaching assistants for EMI courses, and offering a bonus for establishing EMI courses.

2. Students and learning 

(1) The TTU International College organized diverse inter-faculty English-related competitions, encouraging students to participate in English competitions to enhance English comprehension skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

(2) In addition to providing two types of online self-learning resources- Easytest question bank and MyET English speaking training platform-we organized four workshops with specific English-related topics.

(3) We have implemented five types of English learning incentive to enhance students’ motivation for self-learning and taking EMI courses. These include the scholarship for English language tests, adjusting graduation regulations, incorporation of EMI courses or programs into graduation requirements, encouragement and awards for students taking part in international exchange activities, and the scholarship for successfully completing EMI courses.

3.Curriculum

(1) Providing three types of institutional English courses to students, including General English Courses for first and second-year undergraduate students as well as academic writing, not only enhances their English ability but also provides a steady build-up to EMI courses. 

(2) Over the 2022-2023 academic year, TTU has offered 63 EMI academic courses, including 4 EMI micro-units that cooperate with the partner university from Germany, and 2 EMI micro-units that are set up by teachers in TTU. 

4. Resouce Sharing and Institutional Collaboration

     The Excellent Long-Established University Consortium of Taiwan (ELECT) has 13 university members, and Tatung University is one of which; therefore, it offers students intercollegiate study opportunities and resource sharing among member universities. With the aim of enhancing students' global perspective, TTU organizes camps in collaboration with international partner universities and also provides EMI micro-units to shape an international learning environment.

5. Self-assessment and Evaluation

     The self-assessment and evaluation process at TTU are conducted through three approaches: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) self-assessment, EMI teaching and course evaluation surveys, and the EMI end-of-term meetings. First of all, the TTU EMI Office keeps track of the progress by regularly measuring the KPIs. In addition, the EMI Student Learning Survey is conducted twice per semester, and the EMI Teaching Survey is conducted once per academic year, both during the term time. The purpose of these surveys is to investigate the opinions and feedback of students and instructors participating in EMI courses. Furthermore, the EMI-end-of-term meeting is carried out once per semester, the TTU EMI office summarizes and presents project results and outcomes. In order to monitor progress and make revisions to the project to achieve its goals, the Deans and executive staff of each faculty will be invited to join the meeting to co-examining the outcomes and budget management of the TTU BEST project. The issues related to the EMI curriculum and potential challenges will also be discussed. In addition, the minutes of the meeting will be sent to those who participate in the meeting.