As 2025 draws to a close, we sat down with Oxford EMI Director, Julie Dearden, to reflect on a year of international collaboration, professional development, and educational excellence in English Medium Instruction.
2025 has been a busy year for Oxford EMI. What have been some of the highlights for you?
As you say, we’ve had a busy and rewarding year. We’ve had the privilege of welcoming guests to our office here in Oxford, attending and speaking at conferences and events worldwide, and delivering training courses to university lecturers and high school teachers across continents.
It’s been a truly international year. Our online trainer-led courses have connected participants from higher education institutions in Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Turkey, France and Viet Nam, and beyond. This diversity has enriched every course, by bringing international perspectives and good practices on how EMI is designed and delivered in different cultural and educational contexts around the globe.
And the Oxford EMI team has also been very global in 2025?
Absolutely. We’ve travelled extensively around Europe and Asia to deliver successful face-to-face training courses at prestigious institutions including the University of Montpellier in France, Taiwan Tech in Taiwan and Waseda Universityin Japan.
These return trips to Taiwan and Japan were particularly meaningful. We had the opportunity to reconnect in person with our long-term partners and forge new relationships for future collaborations. We’ve also strengthened our connections with organisations and HEIs in Viet Nam, recently joining the Chamber of Commerce Vietnam to deepen our engagement there.
We also delivered our first face-to-face course for high school teachers at Otsuma High School. This programme brought together two distinct groups – English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) teachers. Together, we explored ways to make classes more engaging and techniques to encourage active learning among high school students.
You mentioned the team had also attended and presented at lots of events this year. Could you tell us more about that?
Of course. We’ve been fortunate to engage with the wider EMI, Transnational Education (TNE) and Higher Education (HE) communities this year.
In Japan, we were invited to be part of the British Government’s Department of Business and Trade (DBT) delegation to Japan. Our colleague, Dr. Ikuya Aizawa represented us and visited EXPO 2025 in Osaka, as well as the Department for Business and Trade events in Tokyo. He was joined by International Programmes Coordinator Emma to visit the British Embassy and the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan.
We’ve also delivered talks to global audiences, both online and face-to-face, at events organised by by APLIUT, ICHLE, RANACLES and JALT covering a topics ranging from the use of AI in EMI to the essential role of continuing professional development (CPD) for EMI teachers.
In the UK, we presented at the eCADRE UK-China TNE conference and participated in many events, including British Council initiatives, such as the Future of English Research Forum, Journeys to Internationalisation: UK-Brazil Collaboration seminar and the UK-Viet Nam Higher Education Forum.
The 6th EMI Symposium, which was here in Oxford, was particularly memorable for me.
What made this event so memorable?
Firstly, this gave us the opportunity to talk about the large-scale EMI project we undertook on behalf of the Ministry of Education in Taiwan and present some findings to an international audience.
Beyond that, I was delighted to present the inaugural Oxford EMI Emerging Researcher Award to Osanka Rathnasiri (University of British Columbia) for her work on language ideologies in EMI in Sri Lanka. We were pleased to hear she used the award money to buy new computer equipment for her continuing research. We’re excited to see where her work leads next.
What are you most looking forward to for Oxford EMI in 2026?
We have ambitious plans for the year ahead.
In the first quarter, we’ll be delivering several online trainer-led courses. This includes a closed group for the University of Economics HCMC (UEH) in Viet Nam, and other, open courses running at times suitable for EMI lecturers working in LATAM, Europe and East Asia.
We’ll also return to Asia to deliver face-to-face training courses for our partners at Taiwan Tech in Taiwan and Waseda University in Japan. We’re planning to deliver these during their summer breaks.
A new initiative we are launching soon is The Oxford EMI Plus: Workshop Series. These interactive, trainer-led workshops will each focus on a key theme, such as practical uses for Generative AI in EMI, designing and conducting EMI classroom observations, and increasing student engagement.
What I am most looking forward to doing next year is the return of the Oxford EMI Summer Programme. In July 2026, we’ll be welcoming course participants from around the world to Oxford for this 2-week course. As well as the course itself, which will include input from expert trainers, guest speakers and microteaching sessions, course participants will receive a Reader Card for the world famous Bodleian Library, which they can use during timetabled study periods. It’s going to be an exceptional programme.
Do you have any final messages as we come to the end of 2025?
I think I really want to express my sincere gratitude to everyone we’ve collaborated with this year. To our academic researcher friends, university course directors, teacher development departments, EMI centres and all Oxford EMI course participants I want to say thank you for your time, effort and dedication to making your EMI offerings the best they can be for your students.
We look forward to continuing and expanding our collaborations in 2026!
To find out more about Oxford EMI’s plans in 2026, check out our Training Courses & Events page or get in touch.