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| Chinese and Dutch students participating in first Industrial Design Exchange tour the campus. Photo: Rick Schotman |
Originally from Hilversum, Anneke Bakker, a 24 year old industrial design student, says the Dutch and Chinese students have been writing back and forth on the social network Facebook for the past month before their face-to-face encounter at the airport. `We took a Chinese culture course in preparation for their arrival and learned if we give a handshake to a Chinese student then it's better not to grip their hands too tightly, as they don't consider this a sign of confidence. Still, we can shake their hands but not too strongly,' says Bakker.
Additionally, the course taught Dutch students other cultural differences such as avoiding the Dutch habit of greeting someone with three kisses, or as in China, where students are not permitted to wear open shoes like flip flops inside a classroom. Likewise, most Dutch students are free to ask professors questions during lessons, whereas in China, when a student asks a question, it would indicate the professor's explanation of the material was not good.
All students participating in the program will earn 15 European credits which can be applied to their master's programs in their country of origin. The Dutch electronics company Philips, headquartered in Amsterdam, will propose a design project for the cross-cultural design teams to develop. The first course, `Design and Emotion,' will focus on designing a product for a particular global market and earns the students five credits. In this case, IDE students are designing for the Chinese market.
Bakker says, `Last year, a design team worked on developing a baby phone.' The IDE students have made plans to visit Philips for consults with their design team to gain valuable feedback on how to improve their design from experts employed by the company. The other ten European credits are earned through the courses, `Past Futures' and `Evolutionary Product Development,' and all courses will be taught in English.
Leaving the airport together the students drove by bus to the UT. One of the Chinese exchange students, Yi Cao, 24, looked with curiosity out the window of the bus on the way from Amsterdam to Enschede. `When I came out of the plane, my first impression was that everything is green and fresh in the Netherlands. It's cleaner than China with more trees and grass.' Many of the students also said they took notice of the of the ING bank building along the A1 highway that is designed in the form of a spaceship.
Apart from culture, there are educational differences. `The Chinese students are educated in architecture or graphic design, while the Dutch students are industrial designers. Because of our different academic backgrounds and cultures, I hope we will be able to learn a lot from each other and broaden our mutual views on designing for our future professions,' says Rick Schotman, a Dutch master's student who will travel with nine other fellow students to Beijing to participate in the reciprocal exchange program in September. Once in China at the university, the ten Dutch students will take part in a series of three courses, one on the history and theories behind traditional Chinese architecture, followed by two courses, `Product Design for the Chinese Company' and `Urban Design Projects.' The BJTU, formerly known as Northern Jiaotong University, is highly noted as being one of the earliest universities authorized by the Chinese government, after the implementation of its open-up policy in 1978, to enroll overseas students. Two of the BJTU's professors, Xiao Yi and Gong Chang, accompanied the students on their trip.
A special website has been created to follow the activities of IDE: www.chinaexchange.ide.utwente.nl/.
