Study Coach for Refugees

Since 2015, the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt is offering initial study counseling for applicants with refugee background. In 2016, the offer was included in the scope of activities of the Center for Flight and Migration.

Our team advises and supports refugees who wish to study at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. Our services include initial student counseling, placement in suitable preparatory courses, learning support, assistance with applications and registration, and support with financing.

No further persons will be accepted into the Study Coach Program of the ZFM. All interested parties should contact the International Office of the KU.

vhb course: "Flight and Migration - Basic Knowledge for Volunteers"

Registration for the vhb course “Flight and Migration” is no longer possible from winter semester 2022/23.
The ZFM can look back on 10 successful semesters of the vhb course. The great popularity of the course is reflected in particular in the constantly high number of registrations. Since the start of the course in winter semester 2017/18, the online course has recorded a total of 1265 registrations. The participants included students from 27 universities, 609 of whom took part in a performance assessment.

In cooperation with other Bavarian universities, the ZFM developed an online course in 2016/17, which is offered via the Virtual University of Bavaria (vhb). The aim of the course is to give students who are (or would like to be) involved in work with refugees a profound introduction into the subject area, to reflect on this work academically, and to promote joint exchange.
Based on the experience of student initiatives, there is a need to prepare students for different situations in the projects in terms of content. This is where the online seminar comes into play in terms of content and didactics: The students are prepared for the cooperation with refugees and other project partners - such as full-time and voluntary workers - through an online seminar. For this reason, background knowledge for responsible and (self-)reflected work with refugees is being imparted.
The online seminar is designed for self-study with tutorial support: The content is prepared in structured learning units (multimedia supplemented teaching text). Each learning unit contains short tasks for independent checking of learning objectives ("knowledge checks"), a moderated discussion in the group or discursive tasks, some of which are linked to an individual feedback procedure.

Contents of the VHB course:
1. basic knowledge about flight, migration, asylum and refugee policy.
2. arrival in Germany: asylum procedure and integration
3. civic engagement of and with refugees
4. ethics of refugee aid
5. intercultural competence: on the development of the ability to deal with foreignness
6. applications in practice: voluntary German lessons for refugees

Aim of the VHB course:
The course aims to provide students with a basic knowledge in the field of flight and migration and to sensitize them to opportunities and potential challenges in working with refugees. After completing the course, participants should be able to reflect and act sensitively and competently as civically engaged persons in the context of flight and migration. Furthermore, they should be able to recognize and assess responsible and competent action with regard to other projects.

Postgraduate Program in Adult Education

The ZFM was significantly involved in the development and implementation of the Postgraduate Program in Adult Education and contributes with various courses to the curriculum of the supplementary qualification. The increasingly changing and more complex social transformation processes make lifelong learning in adulthood necessary - also due to migration movements. In this context, there is the increasing necessity of a further professionalization in adult and continuing education in the context of an academic training that adequately prepares for specific task and fields of activity in a pluralistic society.
The KU’s Postgraduate Program in Adult Education provides interested students and adults who are already in employment with the opportunity of a comprehensive pedagogical further qualification. One focus of the program is on shaping and enabling lifelong learning in a diverse society. The program therefore also explicitly offers migrants and refugees the opportunity for further qualification in the field of adult and further education.

International formats

Student Research Weeks
"Questioning the Familiar in Flight and Migration"

In cooperation with the International Student Exchange Program (ISEP), a four-week intensive program on "Questioning the Familiar in Flight and Migration" took place for the first time in June 2019. Taking place from June 03-28, 2019, the program gave participating students the opportunity to critically and empirically examine important issues in the field of flight and migration from a social-scientific perspective.

In the first part of the program, students received a theoretical introduction to classic and current migration theories as well as an overview of qualitative social research methods. Subsequently, the participants had the opportunity to put their acquired knowledge to the test in the context of their own small research projects. In this context, the participants had the opportunity to get to know regional organizations and associations in the context of flight and migration, to participate in workshops and to visit the intercultural Open Air refugium. The program was framed by various excursions and city tours, e.g. on the topic of "Munich as arrival city".

Further Summer Schools are planned, but have to be cancelled or postponed for now due to Corona.

Migration Studies Summer Academy (MSSA)
"Origin - Transit - Destination - Future"

Every summer, the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt offers a one-week Migration Studies Summer Academy in cooperation with the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., alternately held in Eichstätt / Germany or Washington, D.C. / USA. During the summer academy, the topic of (forced) migration will be discussed. In addition, students from both universities have the opportunity to engage with theories and methods, opportunities and challenges related to flight and migration.

The focus is on many areas such as politics, law, language, media, education, and religion, which will be analysed from inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives. The program includes lectures by experts from the KU, the CUA and other leading institutions in the fields of migration studies, psychology, pedagogy, history, social work, philosophy, political science, law, sociology, and theology. Complementing the lectures, the MSSA also includes field trips. The program is aimed at Master’s students and doctoral students from various research fields. In addition, both universities develop long-term international collaborations.

Students to the schools

The cooperation project "Students to the Schools" has been implemented by several schools in the Eichstätt-Ingolstadt region together with the KU since 2015. Within the project as part of a practical seminar, KU students support cooperating schools in the region several times a week in differentiated German lessons each semester.

The focus is on promoting the language skills in German of children with migration and refugee background. In the context of a university practical seminar the students are prepared for the school assignment and are also accompanied during the project phase. The students receive organisational and technical support from the Center for Flight and Migration in cooperation with the DaF/DiDaZ professorship. In this way, the participating students receive additional background knowledge, for example on didactic and methodological approaches to language teaching and tips on suitable teaching materials.

Furthermore, the practical phase is characterised by regular group meetings in which the students exchange their experiences with each other as well as with the supervising lecturers and thereby reflect on their own practice. In addition to the university supervision, the supervising teachers of the project schools are also available to the students at any time for questions and practical help.

For monitoring and further development of the project, a multi-stage evaluation was carried out in the past semesters, the results of which will also be included in a publication at the end of 2020. More information will be available on the ZFM homepage after publication.

Under the title “School Practice: Language Support with DaZ Learners” the practical seminar will again take place in the winter term 20/21. In the coming semester, the seminar will also be offered for the first time in the Studium.Pro area and will thus be accessible to all KU students.

Bavarian-Syrian Cookbook

To complement the “HeimatTafel” project, volunteers from Weilheim produced a Bavarian-Syrian cookbook in 2017/18. The ZFM supported the project through translation activities of an employee, with assistance in typesetting and printing, and by financing the printed cookbook. On July 10, several copies were handed over to the contributors of the Weilheimer Tafel.

The "HeimatTafel" project of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, in cooperation with the Bundesverband Deutsche Tafel e.V., enabled the Weilheimer Tafel to rent a small field. This was given to Syrian refugees for agricultural cultivation. All the recipes in this cookbook are largely based on ingredients that were grown and harvested in the field of the Weilheimer Tafel.

Module and additional study program: "Language qualification and integration coaching"

From 2016 to 2019, the professorship DaF/DiDaZ in cooperation with the ZFM offered the module and additional study program "Language Qualification and Integration Coaching". Students dealt with language didactic contents as well as with psychological and legal basics, which they need in their work with migrants. All contents were treated and deepened in theory, discussion, reflection and practice. The program comprised 30 ECTS credits, which could be acquired within two semesters. The aim was to enable participants to support young people and adults with migration experience in their reorientation and to offer qualified German lessons. In the summer term 2019, the last graduates successfully completed the module and additional study program "Language Qualification and Integration Coaching".

Development of the module "Cultural and Educational Work: Participation and Responsibility" in the area of "Studium.Pro Gesellschaft"

As part of the interdisciplinary program Studium.Pro, which can be taken by all students of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, the module "Cultural and Educational Work: Participation and Responsibility" was developed by the Center for Flight and Migration in cooperation with the Chair for Didactics of German Language and Literature for both Bachelor and Master’s students. The module imparts the competence to independently develop interdisciplinary approaches to current socially and culturally relevant topics. In the lectures, among other things, students deal with educational and cultural institutions in and out of school as well as with the individual, structural and relational conditions of participation and cultural education.