About BBAC Project
Building Bridges Across Continents (BBAC) is an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural student project between Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University (H-BRS) in Germany, the University of Nairobi (UON) in Kenya, the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in Ghana, and the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu (IPV) in Portugal. BBAC provides students the opportunity to gain global competencies by collaborating virtually with other university students across continents. Students not only gain hands-on practice in international project management but learn to use digital communication tools in real-life as well as being exposed to different cultures and values across continents.
The students conduct interviews with students from each partner county to discuss issues and share cultural knowledge in the categories “country”, “education”, “family”, “religion”, “sports” and “values and happiness”. Students also acquire time management skills. Furthermore, the students can improve their digital competencies by producing a cultural video as well as focusing on gaining intercultural competencies while communicating with an international audience.
What’s new
In 2020, the project will begin one month later starting in November 2020 due to the pandemic. This year the project will also focus on COVID-19.
We also welcome a new university to the project! Kenyatta University from Kenya will join with students from the School of Education this year.
Virtual Mobility: A new perspective for Africa
We pride ourselves in having connected more than 500 African, European, and American students for the past seven years. These students used digital communication tools without having to travel long distances. BBAC focuses on expanding the idea of virtual mobility so that students can learn from each other to better understand the world we live in without leaving their institution and gaining international exposure at home (internationalization@home). Some alumni of BBAC have continued by visiting or studying in the respective countries (blended mobility). We encourage students to take advantage of other funding opportunities at their institutions to go abroad, but this is not the goal of BBAC.
How it began
It all began in 2013 with a smaller project between Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, University of Applied Sciences and the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. Professor Daniel Agyapong (UCC) and Regina Brautlacht (H-BRS) started their virtual exchange with a German-Ghanaian student project on entrepreneurship.