To promote bilingual education and EMI (English-medium instruction) programs, Taipei Tech and the Ministry of Education are working with the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (Fulbright Taiwan) to bring in native English speakers with professional knowledge to campus. Five American instructors who participate in this Fulbright program will be staying at Taipei Tech and helping in various courses where English is the medium of instruction.

Yang Shih-hsuan, Taipei Tech Vice President, indicated that the university has been taking initiatives to increase the number of English-based graduate programs since 2016, even before MOE rolled out the Bilingual Education Program. “Currently, our College of Engineering and College of Management provide more English-taught courses than what MOE requires,” said Yang, “Taipei Tech is aiming to become one of the model universities that widely implements EMI.”

The MOE Bilingual Education Program allows Taiwanese universities to apply for funding to invite professional native English speakers to their campus.

America’s flagship international exchange program, the prestigious Fulbright program is managed globally in collaboration with 49 binational Fulbright Commissions and more than 100 U.S. embassies in 160 countries.

Kelly Chang, Director of Fulbright Taiwan English Language Teaching Programs, indicated that there are eighty-one Fulbright English language teaching projects throughout the world, and Taiwan has the largest number of them. Fulbright Taiwan has held eight workshops with Taipei Tech, and the Fulbright English instructors at Taipei Tech will provide consulting services and additional English learning workshops, hoping to engage more students and faculty in an English-speaking environment.

Hwang Yuh-shyan, the Taipei Tech Provost and the Director of Bilingual Learning Center, noted that, through the Fulbright program, Taipei Tech will be sending ten faculty members for intensive EMI training at the University of California San Diego next winter. Taipei Tech has also been working with Penn State to improve and innovate teaching materials and methods. “We actively work toward Taiwan’s bilingual education goal, hoping to establish the best practice of EMI teacher training,” said Hwang.