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, Moi University (MU) in Kenya, the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in Ghana, the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu (IPV) in Portugal and Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) in China. 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” and “artificial intelligence”. 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
New Participating Country – China
In 2023, Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) joined the BBAC project for the first time. 8 graduate students from China conducted virtual interviews with students from Germany, Ghana, Kenya and Portugal.
Decolonizing the Conversation
We want to focus on offering a platform to build confidence for our African students to participate in a conversation that allows decolonizing our dialogues. It is important to explore the conversations of colonization and independence as well as looking at exposing the vast fundus of African culture and traditions. With this project, we can share and work together by exploring the richness of different languages, traditions and cultural diversity.
Virtual Mobility: A new perspective for Africa
We pride ourselves in having connected more than 800 African, European, and Chinese students since 2013. 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 the cultural exchange by visiting or studying in the respective countries (blended mobility). We encourage students to take advantage of the mobility opportunities at their institutions. However, the primary vision of BBAC is to foster virtual mobility and to encourage diversity and inclusion.
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.
