BIDA - Becoming Intercultural Diversity Ambassadors

BIDA is open to interested students from all disciplines of H-BRS as well as students from Mount Kenya University in Kenya, the Tanzanian Institute of Finance Management, and the University of Zambia in Lusaka.

This course aims to develop and enhance transversal skills (intercultural, problem-solving, critical thinking, communication, etc.) and future skills (digital, inclusion, civic engagement, etc.).

The course offers a more flexible physical mobility duration to ensure that it is accessible to students from all backgrounds, circumstances and those with fewer opportunities. It will also help to increase future employment opportunities as students who have taken part in institutionalised mobility often have an easier entry into the labour market, with better jobs and higher responsibilities compared with their ‘sedentary’ peers.

H-BRS students will be granted up to 6 ECTS (depending on the examination regulations / Prüfungsordnung) for the participation in this course.

For the BIDA Spring School, seven H-BRS students travelled to Africa with their teachers for two weeks. In the first week, they went to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where they participated together with the Tanzanian students. The students from Mount Kenya University and the University of Zambia joined online the sessions and workshops at the Institute of Finance Management. The visit to the Tanzanian fellow students was also characterised by guided tours (German Embassy and National Museum) and convivial moments.

In the second week, the visit continued to the Kenyan fellow students at Mount Kenya University in Thika, north of Nairobi. Here, the students had the opportunity to continue working on their projects in their groups. In addition, the programme included various excursions, such as a visit to the pineapple plantations of Del Monte, the UN campus in and a day at Mully Children's Family, a Christian non-profit organisation that runs various charitable initiatives in Kenya.

The Spring School concluded with the four different teams presenting the measures they had developed on the diversity dimensions of "age, gender and religion" in the form of virtual posters.

For the summer school, students and lecturers from all 3 African universities were guests at H-BRS for the final phase of the BIDA project. The one-week programme offered enough time for the students to work in newly mixed intercultural groups on the morning programme under the motto "Ubuntu - Humanity towards Others" for the H-BRS RESPEKT! Diversity Day, which took place on 11 May.
The diverse programme included expert lectures on diversity management, international social events and participation in the hybrid conference "Virtual Mobility for All - ViMoAll" where the students successfully offered a World Cafe on the topic of "Blended Learning in a Global Context".