Integration through education. A retrospective from 2015-2018
In the summer of 2015, TUM responded to the challenging situation of migrants fleeing their crisis-stricken homelands and arriving in Munich with a guest student program. Within a few days, tens of thousands of refugees arrived at the main train station. Civil society responded with outstanding commitment at all levels. From the outset, TUM: Junge Akademie was involved in the successful implementation of the guest student program, planning the concept and enriching the TUM initiative with another essential element: the “Buddies for Refugees” mentoring program, in which every guest student was required to participate.
Students, doctoral candidates, and research and administrative staff got involved as personal mentors and actively engaged with the situation of the refugees. They accompanied their mentees in their chosen degree programs, acting as language trainers, interpreters, facilitators, motivators, mediators, and in many cases simply as friends. Through numerous formats for interaction, more than 600 refugees were prepared over the course of three years for the social challenges in the academic education system and in Germany.
Here are some numbers:
- Duration: winter semester 2015/16 to summer semester 2018
- Mentoring tandem: 640
- Subjects: all (with the exception of medicine)
- Volunteer mentors in the pool: 850
- Buddies for Refugees coordination team: 65 volunteers over six semesters
- Hours of volunteering: 35,000 !!!!! (We say thank you)
