Taiwan Tech recently conducted a three-day collaborative exchange with the University of California, Irvine (UCI). The program included discussions on a dual-degree program, EMI demonstration classes, interdisciplinary humanities lectures, and exchanges on bilingual education policies. By actively learning from the teaching practices and curriculum models of leading global universities, Taiwan Tech demonstrated its commitment to deepening international collaboration and continuously enhancing teaching quality.
A group photo of representatives from Taiwan Tech’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and College of Management with the delegation from the University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine) at the dual-degree program cooperation meeting.
UC Irvine is a renowned public research university in the United States, consistently ranked among the nation’s top ten. Its School of Humanities is highly regarded in the humanities, management, and arts and cultural studies. The delegation was led by Professor Tyrus Miller, Dean of the School of Humanities, Professor Yong Chen, Associate Dean of the School of Humanities, and Dr. Jung-Hsien Lin, Associate Director of the Global Cultures Program, underscoring UCI’s strong commitment to this collaboration. Taiwan Tech was represented by Shao-Ting Hung, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, and Yu-Chung Tsao, Dean of the College of Management. The two sides held in-depth discussions on the concrete framework of the “3+1+1” dual-degree program.
Professor Tyrus Miller (right), Dean of the School of Humanities at UC Irvine, and Shao-Ting Hung (left), Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Taiwan Tech, engaged in in-depth discussions on the concrete framework of the “3+1+1” dual-degree program.
The “3+1+1” dual-degree program is designed for students to complete three years of undergraduate study in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences or the College of Management at Taiwan Tech, followed by one year of advanced academic coursework in the School of Humanities at UC Irvine and one year of business and management studies in UCI’s School of Management. Upon completion, students will earn both a bachelor’s degree from Taiwan Tech and a master’s degree in management from UC Irvine, integrating humanistic literacy, professional expertise, and global competitiveness.
Professor Shao-Ting Hung noted that advancing this cooperative agreement will not only enhance students’ international competitiveness but also further promote substantive teaching and research exchanges between the two universities. Professor Yu-Chung Tsao added that this cross-college, cross-national academic structure will provide students with more diverse learning pathways, benefiting those in both the humanities and social sciences as well as management disciplines. The agreement is expected to be formally signed after the completion of administrative procedures, with the program potentially launching as early as the next academic year.
During the exchange visit, Taiwan Tech’s Office of Bilingual Education Initiative engaged in discussions with the UC Irvine delegation on EMI faculty development strategies, curriculum design mechanisms, and research team outcomes. Associate Dean Yong Chen commended Taiwan Tech’s comprehensive approach to curriculum internationalization and bilingual education policy, describing its bilingual education framework as “forward-looking.”
Taiwan Tech’s Office of Bilingual Education Initiatives also engaged with the UC Irvine delegation in exchanges on EMI faculty development strategies, curriculum development mechanisms, and research team outcomes.
At the level of teaching practice, Taiwan Tech organized the “EMI Teaching Sharing & Demonstration” event, featuring EMI demonstration classes by Assistant Professor Ming-Kuo Hung from the Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education, and Professor Wei-Chun Hsu from the Graduate Institute of Biomedical Engineering. Their sessions showcased, respectively, a highly interactive social constructivist classroom design and technology-enhanced clinical teaching applications. Through live teaching demonstrations, the event fully illustrated the diverse approaches and learning outcomes of Taiwan Tech’s EMI courses. The UC Irvine delegation remarked that Taiwan Tech’s EMI classrooms demonstrated substantial depth and innovation in instructional design, reflecting faculty members’ mature English-medium teaching competence and their ability to effectively transform pedagogy.
Taiwan Tech hosted the “EMI Teaching Sharing & Demonstration” event, inviting Professor Wei-Chun Hsu from the Graduate Institute of Biomedical Engineering to deliver an EMI demonstration class that integrated presentations and body language to illustrate technology-assisted clinical teaching applications.
In addition, the exchange program included two interdisciplinary humanities lectures, with Dean Tyrus Miller and Associate Dean Yong Chen presenting on “Creative Misunderstanding in Art and Aesthetics” and “Teaching and Researching Immigration and Food in US History”, respectively. Covering topics across aesthetics, cultural studies, and social history, the lectures brought diverse humanistic perspectives and an international outlook to the NTUST campus.
Faculty and students attentively attended the humanities lectures, which spanned aesthetics, cultural studies, and social history, bringing diverse humanistic perspectives and an international outlook to the Taiwan Tech campus.
Group photo of the humanities lecture session.
The event received enthusiastic responses from faculty and students, with lively questions throughout. One student noted that in a technology- and engineering-focused learning environment, having access to such in-depth humanities lectures was “rare and inspiring.” These reactions reflect the growing demand for interdisciplinary learning at Taiwan Tech in recent years. Faculty and students expressed hopes that humanistic literacy will be further integrated into the university’s teaching and research, fostering a learning environment that combines professional expertise with an international perspective. Professor Shao-Ting Hung emphasized that Taiwan Tech will continue to expand collaboration with UC Irvine, deepening the dual-degree program, teaching exchanges, and research partnerships to build an even stronger institutional relationship.