Since the fall of 2000, the seminar series "Border Contacts" has shaped cooperation between the two universities at the guest student level. The beginnings of the seminar series date back to 1988, when the first meetings between guest students from the University of Oldenburg and the "Seniorenacadmie Groningen, Drenthe, Frysland" took place. In the early years, the participants mainly shared their various study experiences at the annual meetings: While seniors from the Groningen area remained amongst themselves at an academy, the older generation from Oldenburg studied as guest students alongside regular students.

Since the 1990s, this scientific exchange has increasingly intensified, eventually resulting in the bilateral seminar series "Border Contacts". Within this structured scientific format, regular meetings took place in Groningen, Oldenburg and - midway in between - in Leer. Diverse topics from the fields of literature and language, culture and religion, economics as well as environmental and natural sciences characterised the multi-day seminars.