Want to help refugee students in their day-to-day lives, or perhaps offer them a sofa to sleep on from time to time? Anyone wishing to get involved or find out more about ways to help refugees at university is invited by the student initiative “Hochschule ohne Grenzen” to the Lecture Theatre Centre on Wednesday. “Suddenly, everything came to a halt. It’s actually as if you were dead and had to be reborn.” Maurice still vividly remembers his arrival in Germany, which was a foreign country to him at the time. He’d had to abandon his studies in Rwanda and flee; that was eight years ago. He had wanted to go to Brussels, where he had acquaintances, and hoped to settle in quickly thanks to his knowledge of French. But Belgium deported him to Germany – because he had first set foot on EU soil at Frankfurt Airport. It has been a long journey from his arrival at an initial reception centre in Braunschweig to his imminent bachelor’s degree at the University of Oldenburg. Now, together with six fellow students so far, Maurice wants to help other refugee students and show them the way to university – a new perspective. They have named their project “University Without Borders”, which is partly based on their own experiences and which they hope will inspire as many students and university staff as possible. It consists of four pillars: mentoring, language tandems and tutorials, financial support through sponsorships, and accommodation and overnight stays – all arranged via a future online platform. During the summer semester, the group began raising awareness of the project within the university. “We’re still setting things up; everything’s a work in progress,” explains the 35-year-old. Maurice knows first-hand the hardships and needs faced by many refugee students, as well as the legal and financial hurdles they encounter. Aged 27 when he fled – having already completed his teacher training at home and started a further degree in social sciences and rural development – he had no idea that he would have to wait almost four years for the right to remain in Germany. He describes the two years he spent in shared accommodation in southern Lower Saxony in particular as a “bad experience”. He had already been attending German language courses back then, but studying was hardly possible in the cramped back room. He then found a “refuge” with students in Hanover, who regularly let him stay on their sofa bed. “They helped me get away – from a place with no prospects, no opportunity to learn. Just eating and sleeping. That’s wasted time.” Even after receiving his residence permit, Maurice stayed in the region – and got to know the University of Oldenburg through the ‘Kontaktstudium’ programme for refugees with prior teaching qualifications. “That showed me the way back to university and encouraged me to continue my studies,” says Maurice. He is now writing his bachelor’s thesis as part of the further education degree programme in “Intercultural Education and Counselling” at the University of Oldenburg. His next goal: a master’s degree in Educational Science, specialising in migration and education. And Maurice wants to continue driving forward the support for refugee students. The “University Without Borders” initiative is therefore striving to recruit more supporters: members of the university community who come together to contribute an amount of their choice towards a sponsorship scheme and, for example, cover a refugee’s enrolment fee. Students who act as mentors, helping with administrative procedures and drawing up timetables, or who improve refugees’ language skills through language tandems or tutorials. Or shared flats that could offer a place to stay, either regularly or occasionally. “The university does a great deal to ensure that those who want to find their place at university are able to do so,” says Maurice. “And we want to help with that.”
- Information session on Wednesday, 18 November, from 6.00 pm to 9.00 pm in the Lecture Theatre Centre (A14), Lecture Theatre 2
- Programme (PDF)
