The Nihal European University in Sudan

A goal of the Nihal European University in Sudan is to offer students in Sudan education and training in which foreign languages and cultures are a central focus. Yet awareness of intercultural connectedness and intercultural activity can only emerge if students are in a position to reflect on their own cultural identity and open themselves to new ideas and experiences. Studies at the Nihal European University in Sudan will thus be so conceived that students will experience the confrontation with other cultures as an enrichment, thereby enriching their own value systems and capacity for action combined with critical self-reflection.

The cultural diversity of the Sudan and its linguistic diversity constitute a significant challenge. Sudanese cultures, their languages and their history – including their relationship to the languages, cultures and histories of other countries – have to play a central role in education at the Nihal European University in Sudan.

Intercultural competence has its origin in the confrontation with one’s own culture. For a European university in Sudan this means providing students with the opportunity to experience the history of Sudan, i.e. its pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial development, as a relevant aspect in the formation of competence in one’s own culture – a basic presupposition for an enriching confrontation with other cultures.

The native cultures of Sudan thus play an important role, representing the basis for an ability to communicate and accept cultural pluralism.

The process of globalization and the accompanying strengthening and progressive technologisation of the educational and working worlds make it relevant to pay attention to the following:

1. Changes in Production and the Conditions of Production. The production of non-material goods (information transfer and processing, knowledge transfer, services) will gain increasing significance. Furthermore there is a strong tendency toward an integration of international economics in the framework of the world economy.
   In addition the structural transformation toward modernity that Sudan is presently undergoing presents a special challenge for education and training since it is linked to major changes in the working world, as far as the methods of production, the demands and expectations of knowledge and global mobility are concerned.
   Among other things this means that the Nihal European University in Sudan does not only need to transmit technical competence in information processing (through working with personal computers and networks for example) but also the ability to reflect on these processes and to include cultural and communicative factors in this context, i.e. understanding them as inseparable aspects of social activity in the educational and working worlds.
2. Changing in the Conditions of Communication. Present technologies and requirements of communication make it continually necessary to master more information.
   One educational goal of the Nihal European University in Sudan is thus to put students in a position to assess the uses and abuses of the communicative media, thus developing the ability to recognize when cultural misunderstandings are taking place. Here too the intercultural competencies discussed above play an important role.
3. Changes in the Relation of Nations to One Another. Alongside concentration of international relationships intercultural communication and border-crossing mobility both become more significant. At the same time one observes increasingly that this process can result in a reinforcement of cultural boundaries. In particular the present state of tension between Western and Eastern cultures requires critical reflection so that both positive and negative effects of this tension can be openly discussed.
   In this respect it is of central importance that the education and training of Nihal European University in Sudan students is structured in such a way that it supports them in acquiring the courage to display their cultural self-understanding. Knowledge of the history of the Sudanese nation, its cultures, languages and intercultural relations are thus particularly important against the backdrop of post-colonial development.
4. Changes in Individual Life Scenarios. Professional performance increasingly consists in being able to work successfully amid and under changes in fundamental conditions.
   Education and training at the Nihal European University in Sudan should react to this circumstance by developing dynamic forms of transmitting knowledge and learning. This includes interdisciplinary approaches to project learning and problem solving, which also involve long-term applications of theory. Continuing education belongs to the idea of “lifelong learning” which the Nihal European University in Sudan should also foster.

The following objectives should be discussed in this context:

• The acquisition of knowledge and abilities at an international standard
• A good knowledge of Sudanese cultures and the willingness to undertake international and global activities on the basis of solid knowledge of institutions and procedures
• Multilingualism and competence in the realm of intercultural communication
• Mastery of traditional and newer methods of technical communication
• An identification with humanistic and ecological values

The developments outlined place new demands on education and training, making it necessary to transmit the following skills to be realized in the degree programmes formulated by the faculties, departments, institutes and centres of the Nihal European University in Sudan:

• The capacity to think in larger relationships and to order and apply information in a situationally appropriate way as well as to consider the variables involved when solving problems (especially in international and / or interdisciplinary projects)
• The ability to reflect on a question from multiple perspectives and to work out the most sensible solution based on the consideration of different positions

The educational goals of the Nihal European University in Sudan can be summarized as follows: the students of the European university are to be trained so that they acquire a broad scientific, technical and social competences. Above all the four following competencies are important:

1. Specialized competence (discipline-specific knowledge)
2. Cultural-analytical and technological (especially media) competence (knowledge of knowledge)
3. Intracultural and intercultural competence (the successful communication of knowledge)
4. Participatory competence (successful application of knowledge)

The imparting of the four basic competencies aims to mediate thinking that is structural and processual, oriented toward solving problems.