Kiron Website: Open University based in Germany

In the distance learning issues, Germany was also considerably successful by introducing

a platform functioning as an open university in which the asylum seekers and refugees can enrol from every part of the world. This site is called ”Kiron”. Kiron.ngo (”Kiron.ngo”, 2017) is a civil society initiative site designed and launched in Berlin to access refugees to higher education and learning through digital solutions.

The idea was created in the summer of 2014, and put into practice in 2015, by Vincent Zimmer and Markus Kreßler, who had already been working with refugees. A wide range of online providers, including universities have been working together. The results have been significant. The vision behind creating this platform is to pave the way for millions of refugees around the world to graduate with a qualified university degree, completely free of charge. In doing so, no additional time, potential, or lives are wasted.

(”Kiron.ngo”, 2017)

Kiron offers people a possibility to take part in higher education in the form of MOOCs (“Massive Open Online Courses”), presented by well-known universities. These online courses are linked together to shape one of the following study courses: Business and Economics, Computer Science, Engineering, and Social Sciences. The subjects are modified from conventional study methods, and hence should empower an open conversion to usual degree programs. The whole programs have to be completed online until the authentications of the university entrance requirement are obtained. When the mandatory language level is achieved, students are allowed to enroll in a usual program.

Actually, the kiron functions as a university for refugees, and an essential feature of this platform is that the whole program is free of charge. Also, in order to enable refugees to access higher education, it has been created as easy to use as possible. To be able to apply this platform, student is needed to fill in the preparatory student application. It consists of personal information and authentication of refugee or asylum seeker, and also a short English language assessment test, which takes approximately 20 minutes. The purpose of the test is only to evaluate the current language proficiency level of the students, and it will not influence on the admission progress. Still, at least level B2 is recommended for taking part in the courses. There is also another option given to the students. They are permitted to upload a language certification if they have any, but it is not mandatory.

the applicant, and if everything is confirmed, they are sent an e-mial containing a confirmation of their acceptance (”Kiron.ngo”, 2017).

After being accepted, the refugee is entitled as a preparatory student. To become a full students of Kiron, he or she has to pass two test MOOCs during one month (”Kiron.ngo”, 2017). If the refugees do not access to the Internet, they are given laptop equipped with a WiFi dongle to enable them to pursue the MOOCs (Pauli 2015).

The responsiblities of the courses are on the shoulder of the most well-known universities of the world including Harvard, Yale, Cambridge and MIT, Stanford University, University of British Columbia, University of Amsterdam, to name a few.

The admission to one of the universities is also possible. The universities functions in this way that they allow students to participate in a higher semester (for example, senior or junior level) by realizing the online courses as equivalent to parts of the usual program.

After completing the courses successfully, students are given their degree from the university, which has accepted them (”Kiron.ngo”, 2017).

In fact, this procedure is in the favor of universities, because they can now fill up the vacant places by the Kiron students. Additionally, in some countries, the government gives prizes to students who have successfully graduated, which increases in universities motivation to participate in Kiron’s program (Pauli 2015).

Kiron offers also so called “study-hubs”. In order to provide an excellent vibe for the students, these offline offers have been designed in order to provide some spaces for them to study, to have meetings, or so on (Kiron 2016c). One famous study-hub is located in the Berlin Social Science Centre (“Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung”). It has been equipped with four laptops, which give the opportunities to the refugees to do their studies there (Agarwala 2016).

Additionally, Kiron has also designed buddy programs, where regular and volunteer students help Kiron’s students. It offers also counseling and guiding services that support students on their path to enter German universities. “At present, we have over 1,500 students on the platform, 22 partner universities, and 4 study tracks.” (Kiron.ngo) Voluntary work is the root of Kiron. There are 250 volunteer working as a team at least

15 hours per week. Furthermore, there are also 20 full time employees who work and cooperate with Kiron (Agarwala 2016).

A CNN interview conducted by Heilpern (2015) with Markus Kreßler, one of the founders of Kiron can give the clue what were the reasons for designing this website and how it works. Markus Kreßler said that two main reasons made them think about creating this platform. First, the refugees can not be admitted to the normal universities due to the lack of access to the appropriate paperwork; second, universities require high tuition fees.

By designing this website, they could remove these two barriers. The current courses that are taught online include engineering, computer science, business administration, architecture and intercultural studies. The certifications are issued by the European Credit Transfer System, in this case all of the degree programs are universally recognized, however, it does not mean that Kiron itself has no input in its degree programs. The learning materials are produced by the university, third-part content, and also e-learning technology.

According to one of the refugees participating in kiron courses, integrating with society is one of the advantages of this site, as he believed that finding job is very hard, especially when you are new and a foreigner in a society. He also believed that flexible schedules are very advantageous due to the fact that you can simultaneously work and study.As usually in European universities, Kiron courses last for three years. The main difference is that the first two years are completed online, but for the third year or probably fourth year, there is an opportunity for the students to continue their studies on campus in one of Kiron partner universities. At the time of interview, it had been estimated that 1200 places were taken four month before the beginning of the semester (”Kiron.ngo”, 2017).

Colby (2016) implied that although the maximum number of students are based in Germany, refugees from all over the world can easily take the classes on condition that they access to the internet. Kiron has already welcomed a group of refugees from Turkey, Jordan, and even Sri Lanka.

In the Kiron Partner Report 2016, published in 2017, the whole system has been explained. Also the advantages and drawbacks have been taken into account from the

first day that the site has begun working. In the academic model, after registering on the website, and completing language assessment test, completion of two test-MOOCs is done through 8 weeks. After this stage, two years are allocated to the online studies. Also an orientation phase, which is optional, has been suggested alongside specific courses for chosen study track. Applicants, who can successfully pass 30 up to 60 ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) will be granted to continue their third or forth year of study in one of the partner universities. After being admitted, students are required to pass another approximately 120 ECTS, and in doing so, Kiron students have the possibility to provide them with an accredited bachelor’s degree from these universities (”Kiron.ngo”, 2017).

According to Partner Report (2017), in 2016, one year after designing the site, thousands of refugees were encouraged to register in the site, and it resulted positively. The reason of this success is associated with media coverage, and also a number of social media campaigns. By December 2016, 4000 interested and prospective members enrolled in the site, and interestingly more than 2000 students are yet studying through this platform.

The majority of the participants are between 22 and 29 years old, and 26 to 29 years old shape the biggest group. It can be also mentioned that the men welcomed the site more than women (16% women, 84% men). Additionally, 68% of the applicants come from four different countries: Syria (47%), Afghanistan (12%), Somalia (5%) and Pakistan (4%), and among these groups, (48%) are based in Germany.

The crucial development of Kiron has occurred in 2016, as they could expand the number of the universities to 27. These are from five different countries including Germany, Italy, France, the UK and Jordan. The other factor is associated with improvement of their academic program, expanding students support programs, and also a remarkable increase in support of Kiron. (”Kiron.ngo”, 2017) .