The aim of this session was to find out how effective Romanian education is at promoting interculturalism and to see if there are any steps that can be taken by ESN to support this cause.
●To compare the Erasmus+ experiences in different host countries and to draw parallels between these and the situation in Romanian HEIs.
● To find out how often local students (both in our country and abroad) interact with the incoming students.
● To come up with solutions that can be implemented by ESN Cluj-Napoca to promote interculturalism and to strengthen the relationship between the volunteers, the incoming students and the local students.
● To outline the advocacy tactics that are available to ESN Cluj-Napoca in order to promote interculturalism to local HEIs and IROs.
One of the main topics of the discussion was the common sentiment of losing the interest to interact with Erasmus+ students. Almost all participants agreed that they could try to be more open and personally engaged with Erasmus+ students and that they could try to be more consistent with this. There is no need for complicated activities or difficult advocacy efforts; this is just the right way to personally promote interculturalism.
The majority of the participants agreed that ESN Cluj-Napoca could try to collaborate with other students’ NGOs or students’ representation bodies from the local HEIs, in order to facilitate the interaction between local students and incoming students. This could be done by pairing incoming students with local buddies from the same faculty / field of study (they could interact more often and consistently, and the local buddies would be more informed and helpful).