National Chung Cheng University – Bilingual Education for Students in College (BEST) Program
2024/25 Academic Year Highlights Report

National Chung Cheng University (CCU) stands as the sole university in the Chiayi region recognized by the Ministry of Education with three BEST benchmark college programs. The Colleges of Engineering, Management, and Education represent premier benchmarks in the fields of engineering and applied sciences, and social sciences, respectively. Committed to becoming an internationally renowned institution that cultivates exceptional professional talent, CCU advances its bilingual education framework through three strategic pillars: sustainable bilingual campus development, cultivation of globally mobile professionals, and enhancement of international academic impact.

To operationalize this vision, CCU established the Bilingual Resource Promotion Center. Led by the Center for Language Studies, this center coordinates campus-wide bilingual education through both vertical integration and horizontal communication. It operates under a core mission to ensure systematization, quality consistency, and optimal resource allocation across multiple dimensions, including institutional design, quality assurance, faculty development, and student support.

To monitor these efforts, the university implemented a comprehensive EMI teaching evaluation and quality assurance dashboard. During the 2024/25 academic year, over 60 EMI courses completed structured classroom observations, with student evaluations consistently exceeding 4.2 (out of 5) for both "course objective clarity" and "learning support." Furthermore, CCU has invested heavily in advanced educational technologies to support blended learning, including a CCU-GPT-enhanced eCourse platform, the CCUTube online resource platform, and a dedicated EMI Moodle module. Internal and external quality assurance is further reinforced through prestigious international accreditations, such as IEET and AACSB.

Faculty development remains a cornerstone of CCU’s bilingual strategy. In 2024/25, the university conducted over 40 EMI faculty training workshops and introduced diverse internationally recognized teacher certification programs in partnership with Fulbright advisors, the Oxford EMI certification program, Columbia University, National Taiwan Normal University, and National Cheng Kung University. Additionally, CCU has established cross-institutional faculty training and classroom observation systems while integrating EMI teaching metrics into faculty incentive and promotion structures to encourage active participation.

For students, the university structured a progressive "Foundation → Professional → International" learning pathway. General English courses were significantly upgraded and supplemented by intensive exam-prep classes, specialized micro-courses, and various exam subsidies and incentives. Consequently, exam registration and attendance rose by 20% compared to the previous year, yielding substantial growth in B2-level proficiency and positioning nearly 80% of students on a clear trajectory toward B1+. Driven by this momentum, university-wide EMI course offerings more than doubled, expanding from 235 courses in AY2020 to 542 in AY2024.

Administratively, CCU employs an innovative dual-track governance model. At the university level, the Center for Language Studies leads the EMI resource center to establish campus-wide standards, promote new systems, manage quality assurance, and share language resources. Concurrently, at the college level, individual colleges develop differentiated features tailored to their unique professional advantages. Internally, close collaboration among the Offices of International Affairs, Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, and General Education ensures a seamless learning pathway. Externally, strategic partnerships with regional resource centers, the Taiwan Comprehensive University System, and the Six-University Alliance support EMI faculty training and international language and culture teaching teams. Notably, these bilingual resources extend beyond the campus to benefit regional industries and support the globalization of local culture.

Throughout 2024/25, the strategic expansion of EMI courses and English proficiency enhancement measures has successfully shifted student perspectives, making EMI the "new normal" as a vibrant bilingual campus culture takes root. By balancing rapid course expansion with a rigorous quality assurance framework—including positive teaching evaluations, classroom observations that promote professional community learning, and international accreditations—CCU has solidified the foundation of its benchmark colleges. Crucially, these initiatives have generated significant spillover effects into non-benchmark colleges, forging a collaborative, cross-college promotion pattern and establishing a definitive new trend in bilingual campus development.

College of Management

Leveraging its AACSB international accreditation, the College of Management at National Chung Cheng University is committed to developing practice-oriented EMI courses. Through diverse instructional designs such as case studies and presentation drills, the College has successfully created an immersive environment for cultivating professional English proficiency. Although the 2024/25 academic year marked only the second year of the initiative, it has already yielded impressive results, with EMI courses accounting for 21.79% of the undergraduate curriculum and 32.46% of the graduate curriculum. Student enrollment willingness surged, with significant growth among sophomores and first-year master's students. Additionally, students' achievement rates in English listening and reading have shown measurable improvement. Moving forward, the College will continue to strengthen output-oriented pedagogical strategies to comprehensively enhance students' English expression and international communication skills.

1. Practice-Oriented Instructional Design: Integrated AACSB standards with practical teaching methods like case studies and presentation drills to build a professional English learning environment.
2. Notable Increase in Course Offerings: Offered 51 undergraduate EMI courses (21.79% of the total) and 94 graduate courses (32.46%) in the 2024/25 academic year.
3. Surge in Student Enrollment: The enrollment rate in EMI courses surged from 11.8% to 36.4% among sophomores, and from 37.3% to 47.3% among first-year master's students.
4. Substantial Proficiency Gains: Students' achievement rates in English listening and reading rose to 59% and 57%, respectively.
5. Strengthening Output-Oriented Strategies: To further improve speaking skills, the College will implement targeted measures such as presentations, discussions, and other output-oriented teaching strategies.