One of CampusAsyl’s two main areas of focus is supporting educational processes.

We have learned through experience refugees not only desire more support with educational processes, but that it is also necessary given many structural problems. Educational structures are rarely as well-designed for people of different learning backgrounds as they are often presented to refugees. Interrupted or discontinued educational backgrounds and the heterogeneity of languages and ages in a particular cohort require that support services be specifically adapted to meet the educational needs of refugees.

For this reason, our projects at CampusAsyl emphasize the acquisition of the German language as the key component of integration and social participation. Further, many refugees already have good prospects for integration based on the education, academic qualifications, and skills competencies they bring with them. Our job is to build on these to create new opportunities and improve their chances of upward mobility. There is a key relationship between decentralized accommodation, contact with Germans, participation in language courses, and the corresponding development of language proficiency. For this reason, our programs focus heavily on developing this capacity.

Through our educational programs we strive to reach different audiences and meet their individual needs. We work together with adult refugees and children, as well as apprentices and students. The overarching goals of these educational programs are to improve German language skills, facilitate personal interaction with the resident community, foster the feeling of acceptance in a new home, and promote a confident, independent attitude.

Concretely, this means that:

Our Hochschul-Mentoring program addresses unrealized social capital, lack of familiarity with German systems of higher education, and the especially big challenge of language acquisition through structural, communicative, and social support. We organize one-on-one partnerships between German and refugee students which guarantee attention to individual needs. Refugees who are working toward an academic degree in Germany will have easier access to the university and student life in Regensburg.

German for Adults supports many refugees to learn the German language. This program promotes language acquisition through personal contact and caters to the needs of individual learners depending on their level. The program offers a broad spectrum of support, from basic literacy to private lessons for advanced learners.

Through our Language Sponsors program, refugees have the opportunity to learn or practice their German with a German partner in a relaxed and friendly exchange. Although German is the main point of focus, it is also possible for partners to shares skills in the refugee’s native language as well.

In addition to our programs for adult learners, we also provide Learning Sponsorships for Children, which provide a comfortable and trustworthy learning environment for elementary school students, considering that they must learn to conform to a new and unfamiliar school context.

Azubi-Tandems were first organized in 2019 and provide refugee apprentices and students in trade schools the opportunity to determine their own lives in Regensburg and master the specific challenges they face in vocational training. This is accomplished through the tandem model which provides support in completing homework assignments, learning, recreational activities.