The presentation of the Intercultural Workout platform took place at the Izvestia International Research Center as part of the open discussion “Prevention of Interethnic Conflicts in the Educational Environment”
Attracting international students and their high-quality integration are issues of first priority for the higher education environment, experts agreed. It is the intercultural communication that will allow Russia not only to maintain its position in the higher education market, but also to reduce the level of xenophobia.
“Over the past 18 months, the dynamic of international cooperation has changed, but not critically. We did not reduce contacts. People who exhibited academic interests still do. Yes, the situation is quite tense, relationships in the academic environment strained, but the ties are not broken. While communicating with students, the foreigners understand that Russia is not the picture painted in the foreign media. Here they establish connections with Russian youth, which in the future will contribute to the personal and career-related growth of both parties,” noted Pavel Shevtsov, Deputy Head of Rossotrudnichestvo.
According to the statistics presented by Rossotrudnichestvo and the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, the influx of international students has actually increased. The programs of Russian universities are especially attractive for Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, India, China, Vietnam, the countries of Africa and South America.
In addition to language training, students need immersion in the environment and support during the adaptation period. For this purpose, the Center for Tolerance created the online educational platform “Intercultural Workout”.
Training on the platform is based on gamification: students will study real situations that involve linguistic and communicative difficulties.
Both students and graduates of RSUH, who had long worked in the field of communication and project activities, took part in creating cases for the platform and presenting the project.
“We chose this format because it reflects the realities of student life and provides practical recommendations. The program consists of two modules: one for international students, whose task is to navigate the Russian environment, the other for Russian students and teachers who want to improve their intercultural competence,” said Dr. Anna Makarchuk, director of the Center and curator of the project.
Access to platform materials is available on crosscultural-workout.ru. After the completion of all tasks, a personal certificate of participation is issued.
More details here.
