It has been more than ten years since I-Shou University (ISU) started its bilingual campus project. So far, ISU has established many bilingual platforms and provided bilingual regulations and rules, and it offers more than 560 EMI courses every year to satisfy the need of international students, whose number is increasing year by year. In 2009, the International College was inaugurated to offer EMI courses by outstanding faculty members, 70% of whom are foreigners, and it is the only international college in Taiwan that has been accredited by the AACSB. In recent years, ISU has initiated several international programs for bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, and doctoral degrees to construct a complete IEE (International Engagement via English) education system, covering the fields of business administration, tourism and hospitality, engineering, communication and design, languages, and medicine, and ISU has received an accolade from international students from some 40 countries with this great achievement.
To help students familiarize themselves with English, ISU has proposed an innovative foreign language education plan under the 2020 Higher Education Sprout Project. Through modular and innovative teaching materials, ISU provides students with diverse themes, such as cultures, tourism and leisure activities, and technologies, for them to learn English depending on personal interests, use English in daily life, and improve their English skills. President Chen emphasized, “ISU wants to not only recruit students with excellent English skills but also help recruited students improve their English skills,” in order to enhance students’ international mobility.
To keep pace with the global higher education trend, ISU has worked with hundreds of overseas partner universities to offer student exchange programs and dual-degree programs. Besides, ISU has collaborated with Nottingham Trent University (NTU), England, to provide a 3+1 dual degree program and the PEAP English course for students to study at NTU in the senior year, as long as their academic English reaches a certain level, and earn dual degrees. By so doing, ISU can improve students’ international competitive edge and showcase its determination to become a global knowledge hub.
President Chen proposed the ISU 2028 Project when taking office in 2018, aiming to make ISU become an international education hub with its core values. At the current stage, in addition to renovating English courses for students to learn autonomously, ISU has every intention of helping faculty members teach in professional English by the “EMI Training Program” and improving both staff and students’ English abilities by an intensive and extensive learning model. In response to the “Blueprint for Developing Taiwan into a Bilingual Nation by 2030” proposed by President Tsai Ing-wen, ISU dedicates itself to fostering specialists with international perspectives and an international competitive edge and aspires to become the very first international university in Taiwan that offers only EMI courses by 2028.
President Chen (second from right) encourages domestic students to learn across boundaries and international students to walk in the internationalized campus ISU has created.
