By: Professor Elisabeth Wilding & Professor Daguo Li, International Study and Language Institute (ISLI), e.a.wilding@reading.ac.uk; d.li@reading.ac.uk

 

Excerpt

“This case study reports on a one-year initiative to develop collaborative exchange activities for undergraduates involved in transnational (TNE) programmes offered at both the NUIST Reading Academy (Nanjing, China) and the University of Reading”.

Overview

By working with students, we developed both staff-led and student-led activities to create opportunities for inter-campus interaction. As a result, there was an increased level of collaboration between students in China and the UK, through online conversation cafes, an intercultural communication seminar, and two live broadcasts.

 

Objectives

· To develop collaborative exchange activities for students involved in programmes offered at both the NUIST Reading Academy and in the UK.

· To build sustained interaction that would enhance the students’ feeling of belonging within our global university.

· To have a positive effect on the overall student experience.

 

Context

The project was designed in response to concerns voiced by students at the NUIST Reading Academy (China), who reported how they felt a lack of interaction or connection with the UK campus. We aimed to engage students on the two campuses in shared activities that could enhance experiences for everyone.

 

Implementation

1. To launch the project, we collected input from Nanjing-based students on their ideas for collaborative activities.

2. We held a series of meetings with our student partners, including an induction, as well as brainstorming and planning sessions.

3. We encouraged students to tak

e the initiative to suggest and lead activities.

o Two student partners worked together to successfully organise broadcasts from the UK to enable Nanjing-based students to sample “live” the UoR campus life and town life.

o Other partners attempted to engage RUSU student societies in collaborative activities (though with less success).

4. Staff-led activities were run concurrently, including an intercultural communication workshop with Nanjing- and Whiteknights-based students during a flying faculty visit to the Academy. We also arranged for Academy students to have access to the Online English Conversation Cafes at UoR, which attracted a number of enthusiastic participants from China. Both of these activities will be sustained beyond the project end.

5. Student feedback was collected at each stage.

 

Impact

The Project has achieved its objectives overall. , There was an increased level of interaction between students in China and the UK. Here is one example: The Academy students now have access to the online English Conversation Cafes that take place about every two weeks during term time. We have records that students signed up to the Cafes, and a number gave positive feedback to the organiser. Both students in Nanjing and Reading benefitted from the online intercultural exchange, so we will continue in 2024/25.

We have also learned valuable lessons from this experience. Challenges included engaging student partners on the student-led activities. It was partly due to assessments and crunch points in student life.

 

Reflections

· For student-led activities, they were more successful if student partners had experience of organising similar activities already.

· Initial staff encouragement, support and monitoring for student-led activities were important.

· Integrating staff-led activities proved to be successful and sustainable.

· Long-term planning would be needed if activities are to involve student bodies such as the Students’ Union or its societies. The length of the Project meant that it was impossible to do long-term planning.

 

Follow up

Online English conversation club, Intercultural Communication workshop and increasing student exposure to UoR presence in Nanjing have continued even after the project.