BBAC – Building Bridges Across Continents

Building Bridges Across Continents (BBAC) is an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural student project between the Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg (H-BRS) in Germany, University of Nairobi (UoN) in Kenya, University of Cape Coast (UCC) in Ghana and the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu (IPV) in Portugal. In 2020, students from the Kenyatta University in Kenya joined the project for the first time. The BBAC project provides students with 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 as well as be exposed to different cultures and values across continents to gain a better understanding of the world we live in.

The participating universities and country coordinators have continued to offer this virtual exchange since 2013 for the participating university students from Germany, Ghana, Kenya, and Portugal to learn, discuss and encounter a new world of ideas, share similar interests, and find out about the cultural diversity of different cultures in Europe and Africa.

The students conduct interviews with students from each partner university to discuss issues and to share cultural knowledge in the categories “country”, “education”, “family”, “sports”, “religion”, “food consumption” and “values and happiness”. Furthermore, students acquire time management skills and improve their digital competencies by producing a cultural video as well as focusing on gaining intercultural skills while communicating with international students.

The project conducted in 2021/2022 winter term was the second project that has taken place since the pandemic and the outspread of COVID-19. The goal of the BBAC project is to engage students in conversations that include the past and to build confidence to discuss the future.