World Refugee Day – Refugees Welcome

Humboldt-Universität is committed to refugees and integration

To mark World Refugee Day on 20th June 2017, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) is presenting insights into the wide range of programmes and initiatives for refugees.

Since summer 2015, the HU has launched numerous initiatives to provide refugees access to university. Researchers at the HU are engaging with the issue of flight in various projects and initiatives.

Since the 2015/16 winter semester, the Humboldt-Universität has offered a free guest student programme for refugees. In total, around 50 refugees started a guest student programme at the HU during the 2016/17 academic year. Currently, around 30 and 100 refugees respectively are taking part in the programme HU4Refugees and in the language courses.

Encompassed under the initiative ‘Refugees Welcome at the HU’, the HU is putting together offers that seek to help refugees begin university, participate in studies and research, and facilitate their everyday lives at the HU.

The HU profile ‘Refugees Welcome at the HU’ covers three pillars:

Programmes for prospective students with a refugee background
Programmes for displaced or at-risk researchers
Research pertaining to flight and migration

The commitment of Humboldt-Universität is primarily distinguished by its approach spanning across different target groups as well as close, interdisciplinary cooperation and networking, strong student commitment as well as a particularly broad base of academic expertise on flight and migration (such as the Berlin Institute for Empirical Integration and Migration Research, the Interdisciplinary Centre for Border Research, and the planned Federal Ministry for Migration Research), as well as research activities in and on the regions of origin of refugees.

Scholars at Risk

The HU joined the network ‘Scholars at Risk’ (SAR) in June 2017. Scholars at Risk is an international network in which over 400 universities, research institutions and other research organisations work together in 39 countries. By joining SAR, the HU intends to provide support in the protection of researchers at risk, as well as promote academic freedom and build on its current work for at-risk researchers at a national and international level as part of the network.

Programmes and initiatives for refugees

Office hours for refugees

Every Tuesday, 1pm to 4pm, without appointment, at the Student Service Centre in the HU main building, Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin.

The office hours are available in Arabic, English and German, as well as in Farsi on the first Tuesday of each month.

Language courses

HU offers German language courses and study preparation in cooperation with the Free University of Berlin (FU) and the Technical University of Berlin (TU), and using funding from the Federal Ministry for Education and Research. The next courses begin in the 2017/18 winter semester.