The OUC-Putuo Oral English Project (also referred to locally as: The Putuo Project) is a cooperative project between the Faculty of Education at Oslo University College, Norway (Høgskolen i Oslo), and the Bureau of Education in the Putuo District, Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province, China, in the field of TEFL, Teaching English as a Foreign Language. In the autumn term of 2008 the first contact was made between Oslo University College and Ningbo University with the aim to initiate future cooperation, in the field of student exchange, as a first step. In May 2010, cooperation between the two institutions will be formalised and an agreement signed. The signing ceremony will take place in connection with the opening of the Oslo Week at the Norwegian pavilion at Expo 2010 Shanghai China.

The project came into being in 2004, after initial contacts between Professor Trond Storebakken of UMB (Norwegian University of Life Sciences), Foreign Affairs Director Shen Cong of the People's Government in the Putuo District and the Department of English at the Faculty of Education, Oslo University College (Høgskolen i Oslo).

The initial contact was triggered by a deep-felt need in Putuo to develop their students' English speaking skills, at a time when contacts with other parts of the world were expanding. The district authorities wished to invite Norwegian teachers of English as volunteers to help develop and improve oral English in upper secondary (senior high) schools. Since then, the project has developed rapidly into a complex and multifaceted one, including teaching practice opportunities for Norwegian students of English in junior middle schools in Putuo, mutual exchange visits for authorities and teaching staff and, not least, workshops targeting oral English for Putuo teachers in primary and lower secondary (junior middle) schools.

For their work with the education sector in the Putuo District, Tove Kvil and Mona E. Flognfeldt of Oslo University College have been awarded the coveted Annual West Lake Friendship Award of 2006 and 2007, respectively, presented by the People's Government of Zhejiang Province. Since the autumn of 2008, assistant professor Lynell A. Chvala at Oslo University College has become a vital contributor to the project.

The Norwegian Research Council with its BILAT programme has supported a pilot part of the project (ENGLUKINA).