The eChina-UK Global People Project

The Global People initiative first grew out of a major collaboration between UK and Chinese universities, the eChina-UK Programme (2002-2009), funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Chinese Ministry of Education. However, the scope of its work goes beyond the UK and China to address issues that affect all intercultural partnerships. The rich intercultural learning that emerged from that programme prompted the development of a new and evidence-based set of resources for other individuals and institutions undertaking international collaborative projects. These include:

• A life cycle model of working on intercultural projects
• A competency framework for effective intercultural interaction
• A learning model for intercultural partnerships

These resources can be accessed through the 'Frameworks and models' section of this website.

Since the completion of that project, the Global People team has continued to undertake applied research in the field of intercultural collaboration, both in higher education and in commercial organisations.

Although the main focus of the work is on intercultural effectiveness in international contexts, we believe that many of the resources have a more general value and are useful for those planning collaboration in any situation of diversity – national, regional, sectoral or institutional.

To learn more about the background to the original Global People project, watch the video clip below.