The participants in the certificate award ceremony at the University of Texas at Austin.

The University of Texas at Austin has maintained close Taiwan-Texas international education cooperation ties with Taiwan for a long time. In 2009, it collaborated with Taiwan’s Ministry of Education to establish its Taiwan Studies program, called the “Taiwan Program”. This was one of the first in the country. Twelve years later, with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it established the Center for Taiwan Studies in 2021 “to promote interdisciplinary engagement with Taiwan’s history, culture, and politics”.

This summer, twenty-one teachers at universities in Taiwan traveled to Texas to participate in an off-site bilingual education training course from July 22 to August 3. The two-week course was the result of a collaboration between the University of Texas in Austin (UT Austin) and National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU). In 2021, NTNU was selected by the Ministry of Education to receive funding to improve bilingual education training, to encourage educators to use English as a medium of instruction (EMI), as part of the government’s Bilingual 2030 Policy. NTNU’s Resource Center for EMI then worked with UT Austin to jointly plan and offer this first summer off-site EMI training program for teachers from universities in Taiwan.

NTNU’s ground-breaking summer EMI program at UT Austin comprised a wide range of activities, including workshops, observing teachers at UT Austin in class settings, and a teaching practicum, and it was a “smash hit” for the participants. Taiwan and the United States will continue fostering opportunities for international education cooperation and exchanges to nurture and inspire students and educators on both sides of the Pacific.