DAAD program

DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) is a funding organization, which has been supporting not only international and German students, but also some qualified refugees in their higher education. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) had designed two main programs in collaboration with the DAAD, which have been funded with 100 million euros until 2019.

The first program is named “Integrating Refugees in Degree Programs” (Integra). The second program is named “Welcome - Students Helping Refugees” (Welcome). The purpose of Integra is to give the opportunity to scholastically certified refugees to prepare them to participate for university study in special programs offered at German universities and preliminary colleges. In order to do this, the financial support for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are provided by Integra to appoint and expand offers of language courses and specialized provision for refugees (“Daad.de”, 2016).

According to the analysis done by Steinhardt and Eckhardt (2017), among 86 HEIs, which have been financially supported by the Integra program, one third of them have launched language courses for refugees with university entrance qualification.

Occasionally, the language courses are united with academic suggestions for refugees.

For instance, these offers include guest student programs or connecting courses. In addition, throughout Integra program 22 HEIs similarly extended the language courses of their “Studienkolleg”; particular language courses for refugees who do not fill the university entrance qualifications. Eight of them also suggest language courses for beginners, in which it is uncertain whether these are designed for refugees with or without university entrance qualification. Many of the project explanations correspondingly consist of information on the fact that protection and counseling for refugees is prolonged.

The Welcome program supports 93 HEIs. It has three important aims; “Providing orientation, overcoming barriers, offering assistance” (“Daad.de”, 2016). The target group is the refugees who have already been admitted to HEIs. “Funding can be utilized to pay staff in the projects which are arranged by the students themselves, also those who take part in university integration and inclusion programs.

They can suggest tutorials, offer mentoring, create info resources and assist in translations and language courses.“(“Daad”, 2016). In fact, most HEIs allocate the funding to students in order to support and advise refugees.

These procedures are called e.g. “study representatives”, “Buddy-program” or “tandem-program”. 35 HEIs allocated the funding for assimilation and inclusion programs including sports and social events, collaborative cookery, the establishment of consistent cafes for casual contact. These assimilative happenings are often mixed with low-threshold language programs prearranged through language tandem-programs, in which German daily life is experienced. The latest financed procedures are academic suggestions for refugees. Here, a guest student program is organized by the contribution of the paid students. (“Daad”, 2016)

According to DAAD, most of the refugees settling down in Germany are younger than 25, in other word, during the ages in which the education is very much needed. DAAD is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), and through a

developed set of purposed assessments, it empowers the universities to offer higher education to those who are interested in studying, and have sufficient academic qualification (2016).

In order to provide this access for refugees, DAAD has developed a package of long-term measures, which contains three important elements:

1- Recognition of proficiencies and qualifications

2- Assuring academic capabilities: language and subject-related preparation.

3- Supporting assimilation at universities.

First component: the qualified refugees, who are going to continue their studies in a higher education institute, need to have certain language proficiency and academic capabilities. The evaluation of their qualification, whether it is enough to qualify for academic studies or support is needed, is achieved through an underlying advising session, indicative testing processes and the evaluation of endorsements of academic capability. In doing so, DAAD has been cooperating with its partners (uni-assist e.V (the University Application Service for International Students), TestDaf Institute, which is a language test for foreign learners of German planning to study in Germany or looking for certification of their language skills) to utilize significant measures to evaluate the proficiencies and also to recognize the level of academic qualification of the refugees (“Daad”, 2016).

The recognition process also falls into three main categories;

1- Speeding up the process of university admissions 2- Evaluation of the academic aptitude

3- Determining subject-specific language proficiency.

In the process of acceleration the admission process, the refugees are required to submit their application through uni-assist. In this stage, universities are required to provide information that the academically interested refugees need, and also equip them with advising services (“Daad”, 2016).

In the process of evaluation, TestAS (The Aptitude Test for Academic Studies) evaluates the refugees’ general and subject-related cognitive abilities, and it also can be used to determine academic qualification. It helps the university to add the students directly into degree programs that they might prefer to enter. If the refugees pass this test, their application will be processed through uni-assist at no cost. The test also is free of charge, and there are fixed and flexible testing dates for refugees’ convenience. A remarkable point is that TestAS has been translated into Arabic, in order to give the opportunity to the largest group of refugees to take the test in their native language (“Daad”, 2016).

The other important phase is to assess subject-specific language proficiency and skills.

Due to the fact that the students need to have proficiency both in German language and English language for English-language programs, most of the refugees are obliged to complete a language course before being accepted to pursue their desired degree program. Once again, the all expenses of testing are paid by the German federal government (“Daad”, 2016).

Second component: if a refugee does not have any university entrance qualification, there are preliminary colleges, foundation courses and also comparable programs at German universities that provide training and academic skills. There, the refugees can go through fundamental subject-specific knowledge and terminology, and they are also able to develop individual learning plans and social masteries. Additionally, the universities themselves have agreed upon preparing refugees for admission to their desired degree programs with supplementary language and preliminary courses (“Daad”, 2016) .

Third component: A great many students are spending their time helping refugees become competent members of German universities. This contribution promotes refugees academic success and social assimilation. Assimilating activities include, for instance, buddy and advising programs, language-learning projects led by teacher trainees and students of German Language Studies. The students’ projects are supported by offering them employment contracts and also covering the expenses of materials (“Daad”, 2016).