When the COVID pandemics started in 2020 The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS)offered to their students a purposeful and inclusive route to developing advanced global competences. International, intercultural and interdisciplinary student teams are asked to connect to each other’s communities to make an impact during the pandemic (and beyond), using a design thinking approach. Welcome to the EXchanging Perspectives for Local Impact in COvid Times (EXPLICO) project.
“EXPLICO was born from the desire not to replace the irreplaceable, a physical study-abroad experience, but to provide an opportunity for our students to engage in impactful, authentic intercultural encounters without leaving their home; a fully online, student-led module with an exciting storyline of design thinking and intercultural teamwork that would use our own diverse student population, their backgrounds and their networks as a resource,” THUAS lecturer Corina Tabacaru, member of the EXPLICO project development team, said.