NVU on the lead of Social Peace Initiative” Interview
Introduction:
Nile Valley University (NVU) has special, unique official records among the Sudanese universities.
It is the first and formost university to be established in the north of Sudan . It was established in 1990.
Initially , the Nile Valley University has been established upon two distinguished individual colleges , which have had along and rich history in the fields of academic excellence, applied sciences and professionalism: the Mechnical Engineering College, Atbara 1976, and the Faculty of Education, Atbara 1984. So the university now is stepping confidently forwards towards a brighter future. All the former administrative personnels have exerted vigorous efforts and thus have added a great deal to the university infrastructure, development and progress
The NVU in all its faculties and colleges, always seeks to observe and maintain self-assessment and accreditation , and total quality insurance.
Within our endeavors to shed light on the pioneering institutions in Sudan, the cought up with the Vice Chancellor of the NVU, Prof. Hassan El-Haj Hamad and conducted the following brief interview and came out with the following informative data:
In regard to the role of the NVU during the ongoing war in Khartoum Prof. Hamad said that the university launched an initiative according to there are about one thousand university students from various colleges in the University of Khartoum were hosted to continue their studies in two stages (those in the final year and those who are supposed to sit for exams).
One of the significant activities is the sworn-in of the graduated pcycisians in the RNU primesis.
The RNU launched six initiatives aiming at providing communial support represented by;
1. The Academic Support to the students sitting for Sudan School Certificate exams who fled Khartoum war as they were able to complete the syllabus, and this initiative was also implemented in Ed-Damar where more than one thousand students benefit from it.
2. The Medical Support especially for the final batches. The RNU managed successfully to graduate 143 students.
3. Financial and in kind Support through attracting the support to those who fled Khartoum war and the labors of the university.
4. Statistics and Information to provide accurate data in war time.
5. Media Initiative to document the activities of the university.
6. The most important initiative is the Social Peace Initiative, considering that social peace is a way of sustaining social life distant from internal conflict. In this regard RNU organized various activities including training sessions, social courses, lectures and seminars targeting the all sectors of the society.
On the resumption of the studies the Vice-Chancellor of RNU empathized the importance of supporting the electronic education to contribute in solving the academic obstacles.
On the issue of the probable absence of some students, especially the foreigners, the university will consider that and accordingly their issue will be dealt with when they report as they will not be subject to the governing academic regulations to avoid losing their academic future.
On the resumption of studies, Prof. Hamad affirmed that it will be gradually and that the priority will be for the finalists.
According to him the obstacles facing the RNU are represnted, among other things, by the lack of financing the salaries of the staff members and workers, lack of steering expenses e. g. Fuel, transportation, office equipment and maintenance etc. Most importantly is the necessity of evacuating the students housing compounds, as they are now fully occupied by the families which fled Khartoum war.
Social Development College;
This college was established via an initiative from the Ministry of Higher Education with the head office in Atbara. There 30 centers in River Nile State to allow as much citizens benefit from its training courses and programs. The training courses are ready and all what is needed from the targetted community is to prepare the venue and assign a coordinator.
According to the official statistics of the RNU, 70℅ of its students are from River Nile State.
The RNU has its own electronic education platform.
The RNU launched production incubators and prepared the related feasibility studies but unfortunately it did not find funding.