The Nihal European University in Sudan

Direct admission to university should be available for all applicants who are immediately eligible to begin studies at other universities in Sudan or Europe following the completion of their school-leaving examinations.

Nihal European University in Sudan will accept the following school-leaving degrees as a prerequisite for admission to university study:

• The general Sudanese school-leaving certificate and school-leaving certificates of all other Arab countries (Al-Thanaweya al-Amma)
• The general German school-leaving certificate (Abitur)
• The American school-leaving certificate (High School Diploma)
• The French school-leaving certificate (Baccalauréat de l’Enseignement Secondaire)
• The English school-leaving certificate (GCSE, IGCSE)
• The International Baccalauréat
• Other equivalent school-leaving certificates which are recognized.

So that students can complete coursework in two of the required foreign languages, we can require them to take preparatory courses in languages, as offered by the Language Learning Institute. These should be completed with examinations offered during the semester. These should be examinations however that every interested student can take in order to qualify directly for coursework in the respective foreign language in case the student cannot show in their school-leaving transcripts that they have already met the requirements.

In addition the individual disciplines – each according to the requirements for their degree programmes – can demand that students obtain additional qualifications in preparatory courses, using the same modi as for the language requirements. Details are to be regulated by the individual departments.

Each faculty should offer Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD degrees derived from the Bologna criteria. The disciplines at European and especially German universities will serve as a basis for the relevant departmental regulations for concentrators at the Nihal European University in Sudan. At the same time we should also look to the Sudanese system, i.e. the degrees with their certification of content also have to correspond to Sudanese practice. An overarching objective is that degrees and their corresponding qualifications will be recognized in Sudan, in Europe and internationally.

The following standards will apply across the disciplines:

• The bachelor’s level of studies is foundational, leading to a preliminary university degree. It should normally span six semesters. The first two semesters (“general studies”) will mainly include survey classes which introduce basic topics as well as analytical methods in the respective disciplines. In the following four semesters (“specialized studies”) the knowledge acquired in the general studies phase will be enhanced and expanded.
• The bachelor’s degree encompasses a major, forming the core field, and a minor, forming the supplementary field. Should a student decide upon a combined major, the interdisciplinary character of the curricular offerings of the Nihal European University in Sudan permits him or her to conceive their programme so that their major and minor fields of study can be located in different faculties.
• The bachelor’s degree thus transmits students an academic qualification in one discipline. Beyond that it transmits basic knowledge in an additional subject or in other areas significant for professional life, either as a key qualification, a qualification in an additional field or as a practice-oriented certification.
• Above all a graduate of bachelor-level studies should have acquired the following skills:
  • The skill of dealing confidently with instruments and methods in their chosen fields.
  • The skill of comprehending problems, of conceiving solutions (by using scientific forms of argument) and of completing the organisational work necessary for realizing such solutions.
• The bachelor’s examination completes the bachelor’s level degree programme and certifies students professionally. It substantiates that a graduate possesses the necessary profile. As a qualification it includes the capacity to report orally in a structured manner about a complex topic in the student’s field of studies. It also includes the skill of preparing a written paper commensurate with the standards of their major field. A final written project should also be submitted as part of the examination in which a scholarly problem within the discipline has to be treated adequately, as a rule within a period of six weeks.
   
• If the student has a qualifying grade-point average in bachelor’s level studies, he or she may continue on to more specialized studies. In the four-semester master’s degree programmes knowledge in the major area is expanded and students acquire the skill to undertake specialized work independently. In the framework of the test the examinee must also complete a thesis project, to be completed within four months as a rule, in order to show that he or she possesses the skills to complete scholarly work independently. A master’s degree is the entry path to doctoral-level studies and the attainment of a PhD degree.
   
• Doctoral studies make it possible to pursue research that expands university studies that have already been completed. The goal of doctoral-level studies is to make an original contribution to research, in this way acquiring the enhanced ability of arguing scientifically.
• Whoever fulfils the admissions criteria for the doctoral degree programme can apply at the suitable department for acceptance as a doctoral student by proposing a specific topic and a supervisor with whom they wish to work.
• The conceptualizing of doctoral degree programmes is to be decided by the individual departments. They will decide, among other things, whether their doctoral students – in addition to the mandatory dissertation and oral examination following it – will also be required to take additional courses, for instance in a formal postgraduate programme or doctoral collegium (Promotionskolleg). The departments will likewise regulate the type of oral examination required (a colloquium on the dissertation, a scientific disputation or a certain number of theses). They will also decide upon the duration of the doctoral degree programme; depending on the discipline it might last from 2 to 5 years.