Oxford EMI’s International Programmes Coordinator Emma outlines some of what we discovered on our visits to universities across Taiwan in July 2025.

As discussed in Tom’s earlier blog, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan has set ambitious and inspiring goals for internationalisation through the Bilingual Education for Students in College (BEST) project. 

Having completed our evaluation of the start of this ten-year project in 2023, I (along with Senior Trainer Simon) was delighted to be welcomed back to Taiwan by nine universities to discuss how each is implementing their EMI programmes as the project reaches the halfway mark.

Our conversations were wide-ranging, with a focus on student feedback, the need for continuing professional development and quality assurance, but what united all the EMI teams we spoke to was their clear commitment to designing and delivering the best EMI courses for their students. Below, we share some key discussion points raised during our trip.

Delivering EMI is challenging

There was universal agreement that planning, designing and delivering successful EMI courses is challenging for teachers and that ongoing training and support is needed. 

We were impressed by the well-considered roadmaps for EMI development outlined by the teams at National Taiwan University (NTU) and National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU), including strategies to nurture more advanced EMI educators and share best practices.

We were also pleased to see how our online self-access and online trainer-led courses form part of the robust and expanding continuing professional development programmes provided by the teams at National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) and Taipei Medical University (TMU).

At National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), we also discussed creating online workshops to highlight the role Teacher Assistants (TAs) can play in helping to tackle some of the challenges teachers face. This would include exploring the value TAs have in and out of the EMI classroom, as well as sharing best practices in terms of how they can practically contribute to EMI classes (for example encouraging and monitoring students during group tasks).

The team at Taipei Medical University presenting to Emma and Simon Learning through EMI is challenging

Many teams mentioned the added difficulties faced by students who learn (some of) their chosen subject through EMI, an occurrence very much supported by the research findings of academics like Oxford EMI team members Dr Ikuya Aizawa and Dr Kari Sahan.

In relation to this, we were impressed with the EMI orientation course for students outlined by NTU, an initiative we at Oxford EMI believe all EMI-focused universities should consider adopting. We agree that preparing students effectively by overtly outlining the intended outcomes of EMI helps students better understand both how and (importantly) why EMI classes might differ from classes taught through their own languages.

Interestingly, TMU also shared some recently collected student feedback that showed that EMI courses were outperforming Chinese-Medium Instruction courses across several key areas. We encourage the sharing of such strong indicators of success among faculty and students to demonstrate that, though challenging, learning through EMI can be rewarding.

EMI courses need Quality Assurance

A key issue in many of our conversations, in part as this has become a focus for the Ministry of Education, was how EMI courses could and should be quality assured. 

National Chung Hsing University (NCHU) and National Chengchi University (NCCU), for example, are both eager to establish robust systems of lesson observation, which would include guidelines on what observers (and those observed) need to do before, during and after the observation. 

In addition, many teams talked about the kind of observational tools they have been using, and the potential to develop these to ensure what they record and measure provides both qualitative and quantitative data. The creation of such a standardised tool would also ensure parity across observations.

To support this, conversations on how to adapt the observation tool the Oxford EMI team used to observe 80 classes on behalf of the Ministry of Education in Taiwan are ongoing.

Collaboration is key

As a final point, we were extremely pleased to find that all the teams we visited were eager to continue expanding their collaborations between departments, colleges and universities. We encourage such focus on collaboration, an essential factor in successful EMI implementation.

We were impressed to see the Communities of Practice the teams at TMU, NTU and NCHU have set up to share EMI-related issues, solutions and best practices between departments.  We also admired the ambition and enthusiasm the teams at Yuan Ze University (YZU) and the newly established team at Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages (WZU) have for establishing themselves as hubs of EMI training and research, and look forward to supporting these efforts.

Looking forward

Our conversations with these EMI teams were incredibly useful in ensuring we understand what is happening with EMI across Taiwan. This kind of information, combined with the latest research in EMI, helps shape our teacher training programmes and ensure they are up to date and fit for purpose in terms of offering practical support to EMI teachers.

We appreciate that implementing EMI successfully is demanding and takes dedication, time and team effort. We were inspired by the systems, plans and enthusiasm for EMI we encountered in all our meetings. 

A huge thanks to everyone who invited us. We are honoured to work with you all, and look forward to continuing these conversations and collaborations to build on your EMI programmes. 

If you’d like to meet the Oxford EMI team, in-person or online, to discuss how we might collaborate, please get in touch. 

Blog writer

Emma is the international Programme Coordinator at Oxford EMI. You can find out more about her on the Meet our team page.