The RICH-Ed project (Research on Intercultural Education Resources in Chinese Universities) is a transnational collaborative research project within the EU Erasmus+ program, in which eight higher education institutions from four countries participate. The RICH-ED project will provide teaching methods for intercultural learning skills development in Chinese universities; develop, test and produce teaching materials; and organize training for students and staff groups.
Following the EU RICH-Ed International Seminar on Intercultural Competence in Higher Education, Zhejiang Wanli Sino-German School of Design and Communication and the English Department of the University of Nottingham Ningbo will continue to cooperate in hosting the EU RICH-Ed International Research Project. On June 29th, the EU "Erasmus+" project was successfully organized by the Sino-German School of Design and Communication and the Department of English of the University of Nottingham Ningbo, and many teachers from our school participated in the training.
A training session for teachers of RICH-Ed in Chinese universities was held at the University of Nottingham Ningbo. The theme of this training session was "Design and Practice of Intercultural Communication Competence Teaching Activities", and the core members of the RICH-Ed Ningnuo Project Team and Zhejiang Wanli College Project Team were the trainers for one day. More than 60 teachers from 31 universities (research institutes), including Southwest Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Shanghai Normal University, Zhejiang Normal University, Shanghai New York University, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and University of Stirling, UK, attended this training. The training mainly focuses on the teaching concepts, teaching materials and teaching methods developed by the RICH-Ed program, and aims to enhance the intercultural communication awareness and intercultural communication ability of Chinese university teachers through the training session.
The training session consisted of three main parts. Firstly, Professor Jin Lixian, the research team leader of the project team from the University of Nottingham Ningbo, gave a brief introduction to the project and analyzed the teaching theory part in detail. Then Dr. Du Ping, Dr. Dong Hongbo and Ms. Luo Jun, the core members of the research team from both universities, gave demonstration lessons on the topics of "Intercultural Communication in the Workplace" and "Intercultural Communication in Life". During the training, the project team also organized a discussion with all the teachers present. At the end, Prof. Jin Lixian, team leader of Ningnuo and Luo Jun, team leader of Zhejiang Wanli College awarded the official training certificate of RICH-ED to the teachers.
The Sino-German Institute is also known to have organized the EU RICH-Ed International Seminar on Intercultural Competence in Higher Education to support intercultural teaching and learning in Chinese universities. Similar training will be held again after this program, aiming to achieve through training to strengthen intercultural awareness in the interaction of people from different backgrounds and to build a learning environment that allows both students and staff to engage globally.
The EU RICH-Ed International Research Project, in which the Sino-German College participates, is conducive to improving the research level of our young faculty team, expanding our international visibility in the field of intercultural higher education, and enhancing the international communication skills of our students, thus further promoting the international development process of our university.