To Provide Quality Education and Enhance International Competitiveness, Tzu Chi Encourages Faculty Members to Attend the EMI Online Course

To follow the Ministry of Education’s policy and link up with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals #4 (SDG 4: Quality Education), Tzu Chi University encourages faculty members to attend the EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction) Online Course. The University works with Cambridge English to provide the course. The University expects to enrich faculty members’ capabilities to teach their classes in English. This course lasted for one year, and 27 attended. Twenty-three completed the course, with an 85% completion rate, and received certificates. Faculty members are highly committed to the course.

The EMI Online Course is developed by Cambridge English, a unit of the University of Cambridge, in the UK. It has provided exams and qualifications for learners and teachers of English since 1913. The course has two features. One is that attendees can arrange their own time, on their busy days for studies, without being limited by time and location. The second is that during the entire year, attendees can watch the videos repeatedly, learn from time to time, and enhance their abilities to teach their courses in English.

Twenty-three faculty members completed the course. They formed a group for exchange and discussion. Professor Chen-Ju Lin, dean of General Affairs, who came to participate in the end-of-course session, said, “At the beginning, there were many grammar sessions, so I needed to be patient. As the course progressed, in the second half, I learned with enjoyment. It will be beneficial for me to teach my courses in English.” Professor Jin-Yong Wang, director of the Department of Social Work, pointed out: “This course is helpful. It lets me recall that when I pursued my graduate studies overseas, my professor guided us in a similar way, but as time passed, I gradually forgot it. Through this course, my past memories came back. I will reflect on my teaching and make some adjustments.”

To build friendly and diverse campuses for domestic and international students, faculty members have endeavored to enrich their abilities to teach their courses in English, wishing to prepare students with professionalism and altruism, equipped with excellent communication and language skills. The University expects that under the leadership of these seed faculty, more faculty members will join in the future, and through the EMI Program, they will help students to soar internationally.