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The increasing internationalisation of higher education has left its mark on higher education in Croatia only to some extent as English- medium instruction (EMI) is scarcely offered by Croatian higher education institutions. The School of Medicine in Rijeka (MEDRI) decided to be in line with global trends and offer one of its programmes in English. The present study was conducted among teachers of MEDRI in order to canvass their attitudes towards EMI implementation. The findings suggest that although the respondents have a positive opinion about the introduction of EMI at MEDRI, they also anticipate some challenges that could stand in the way of a quality-based implementation. In particular, they voiced their concerns regarding the teaching staff’s overload, inadequate language and teaching competences, and the challenges posed by integrating English into the clinical level of the programme. In order to meet the challenges presented, the following preconditions should be fulfilled: a) teachers' workload should be modified, b) language assistance and pedagogic training should be provided, c) EMI should be introduced at the pre-clinical level, and d) admission requirements should be set. In addition, given that MEDRI is planning on introducing EMI in the near future, the teachers would like to be more closely involved in the planning process. |
