NEWS
College Features
- Publish Date：2025-06-26
Building a Truly International Campus: NYCU CBMSE Bridges Cultures and Breaks Barriers
Bilingual learning fosters students’ soft skills in cross-cultural communication.
Edited by Chance Lai
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At National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), internationalization is more than just a statistic or a slogan—it’s a lived experience. Nestled at the crossroads of medicine and engineering, the College of Biomedical Science and Engineering (CBMSE) has become a vibrant hub for students from across the globe. Yet as cultural diversity grows, so too do the challenges of integration.
Despite easily following academic content, many international students report struggling with campus life, citing language barriers, social isolation, and difficulties forming meaningful connections with local peers. “We attend classes, but beyond that, it feels like we’re invisible,” one student noted.
On the flip side, local students are often eager to connect but hesitant to initiate conversation due to a lack of language confidence and structured platforms for interaction. As a result, both groups remain curious about each other, but uncertain about how to take the first step.
Bilingual activities co-hosted by international students and local faculty create a relaxed setting for meaningful interaction between local and international students.
From Parallel Lives to Shared Stories
Recognizing this social disconnect, the CBMSE—under the leadership of Dean Chun-Li Lin—has embarked on a mission to turn its multilingual classrooms into a truly multicultural campus. With the support of Professors Chia-Feng Lu and Yu-Chieh Jill Kao, the college’s bilingual education task force is fostering a learning ecosystem grounded in dialogue, empathy, and shared experience. (Read more: The Journey of the College of Biomedical Science and Engineering at NYCU in Promoting EMI)
“Internationalization shouldn’t stop at offering English-taught courses or increasing enrollment numbers,” said Prof. Lu. “It must be lived and felt through meaningful, two-way interactions.”
To this end, the college has implemented several initiatives to humanize the learning experience. These include appointing local and international students as teaching assistants and event hosts—with dedicated training to hone their communication and leadership skills—and designing casual bilingual activities that lower the pressure of speaking and allow students to express themselves freely.
Across these gatherings, it’s common to see students chatting across cultures—swapping stories about their hometowns, academic journeys, or future career dreams. These informal exchanges often blossom into friendships that carry beyond the event space, quietly transforming the social fabric of the university.
Despite easily following academic content, many international students report struggling with campus life, citing language barriers, social isolation, and difficulties forming meaningful connections with local peers. “We attend classes, but beyond that, it feels like we’re invisible,” one student noted.
On the flip side, local students are often eager to connect but hesitant to initiate conversation due to a lack of language confidence and structured platforms for interaction. As a result, both groups remain curious about each other, but uncertain about how to take the first step.
Bilingual activities co-hosted by international students and local faculty create a relaxed setting for meaningful interaction between local and international students.
From Parallel Lives to Shared Stories
Recognizing this social disconnect, the CBMSE—under the leadership of Dean Chun-Li Lin—has embarked on a mission to turn its multilingual classrooms into a truly multicultural campus. With the support of Professors Chia-Feng Lu and Yu-Chieh Jill Kao, the college’s bilingual education task force is fostering a learning ecosystem grounded in dialogue, empathy, and shared experience. (Read more: The Journey of the College of Biomedical Science and Engineering at NYCU in Promoting EMI)
“Internationalization shouldn’t stop at offering English-taught courses or increasing enrollment numbers,” said Prof. Lu. “It must be lived and felt through meaningful, two-way interactions.”
To this end, the college has implemented several initiatives to humanize the learning experience. These include appointing local and international students as teaching assistants and event hosts—with dedicated training to hone their communication and leadership skills—and designing casual bilingual activities that lower the pressure of speaking and allow students to express themselves freely.
Across these gatherings, it’s common to see students chatting across cultures—swapping stories about their hometowns, academic journeys, or future career dreams. These informal exchanges often blossom into friendships that carry beyond the event space, quietly transforming the social fabric of the university.
Students as Co-Creators of Campus Internationalization
At NYCU, students are no longer passive recipients of “international” programming—they are the co-creators. Through intentional design and shared ownership, the cultural distance between “local” and “international” is shrinking. International students are no longer seen as temporary guests but as integral academic community members. Likewise, local students are discovering that global exchange begins right at home.
This shift—from “How do we express ourselves better?” to “How do we create opportunities for understanding together?”—lies at the heart of the college’s internationalization strategy. And it’s redefining what it means to be a global university.
Dialogue-Driven Inclusion: Where Every Voice Matters
In practice, this transformation takes the form of regular student-led roundtables and multilingual forums where international and local students openly share their experiences, struggles, and aspirations. Discussions often touch on course accessibility, campus resources, and cross-cultural communication, providing real-time feedback for administrators and fostering greater empathy among peers.
Far from being just feedback sessions, these gatherings have become emotional lifelines and powerful bridges. Many students initially worried about being misunderstood or left out, but say that face-to-face dialogue helped surface shared values—and gave them the confidence to speak up in class, participate in group projects, and join intercultural events.
By centering its listening, inclusion, and connection efforts, NYCU’s College of Biomedical Engineering is charting a new path for international education—one where no student feels alone, and every voice shapes the journey.
As the college grows its international profile, its guiding vision remains clear: a campus where co-learning leads to co-belonging.
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