On July 14-28, 2019, students of Khazar University – Aygun Aliyeva, Asiman Gojayev, Jafar Allahverdiyev majoring in European Studies and Narmin Aliyeva majoring in MBA participated in a training hosted by Summer School of Tbilisi and Oslo. During the Summer School Program the students were guided by Dr. Jeyhun Mammadov, Dean of the School of Economics and Management and Dr. Elmar Mustafayev, Head of the Political Science and Philosophy Department.

The Summer School was organized within the “Intercultural Communication in Academic Settings in South Caucasus and Norway” project and hosted the participants from Oslo Metropolitan University, Khazar University, and Tbilisi State University.

The Summer school aimed to develop strong ties among partner universities in terms of enhancing intercultural communication skills and competence of students, contributing to internationalization and establishing research collaboration.

The first week of the Summer School was organized at Tbilisi State University and covered the following multidisciplinary topics: “Basic concepts of intercultural communication and competence – social psychological perspectives”, “Basic concepts of intercultural communication and competence – anthropological perspectives”, “Stereotypes”, “Public attitudes and the media”, “Communication between deaf and hearing people as intercultural communication”, “Interpreting as intercultural communication”. Moreover, students had a field trip to International Organization for Migration in Georgia and got acquainted with the current migration trends in the South Caucasus region.

The second week of the Summer School was hosted by Oslo Metropolitan University and touched upon the following topics: “Why are Norwegians the way they are?”, “Media and global culture”, “Salafism, a new religious youth movement in Norway”, “Basic concepts of intercultural communication and competence – social psychological perspectives”, “Roma and educational policy”, and “Tolerance and respect”. Furthermore, the students visited the Refstad Immigration Center in Oslo. The field trip was aimed at acquainting the students with the Norwegian immigration and asylum procedure.

The visit has also provided an opportunity for our students to talk with asylum seekers, to see the facilities where they are settled, and to have lunch with them.