The opening ceremony for Yunnan University’s (YNU) 2019 English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) Program is held on the university’s Chenggong campus on May 22. [Photo/ynu.edu.cn]

The opening ceremony for Yunnan University’s (YNU) 2019 English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) Program was held on the university’s Chenggong campus on May 22. 

Li Rui, the English projects officer of the British Council, Susan Hillyard, a teacher in the English teacher training program, Li Chenyang, vice-president of YNU, and participants of the second and third sessions of the EMI Program attended the opening ceremony.

Li briefed attendees on the internationalization measures YNU has adopted and commented on last year’s EMI Program. 

Hillyard was happy to be able to teach again following last year’s training session and expressed hope that this year’s session would be as successful as last year’s. 

The EMI Program was initiated by YNU and the British Council in March 2018 with the aim of improving the English teaching abilities of YNU’s lecturers.

The program was jointly developed by the British Council and Oxford University with the aim of helping teachers design and deliver lessons in English. 

More than 70 lecturers applied to take part in the first session of the program, with 25 of them qualifying to participate after successfully passing Aptis, a global English language proficiency test developed by the British Council. 

For this year’s program, 48 teachers from 15 schools and five YNU institutes were selected to receive training.