Experiences of refugees in German universities (ErgeS)

In-formal opportunities and restrictions of tertiary education reflected in experiences of refugees in German universities (ErgeS)

A joint research project on refugees at universities in cooperation with the University of Oldenburg

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Yasemin Karakaşoğlu (University of Bremen); Prof. Dr. Paul Mecheril (University of Oldenburg)

Research: Lukas Engelmeier (University of Bremen); Noelia Paola Streicher (University of Oldenburg)

Funding: VolkswagenStiftung

Duration: 01.03.2018 - 31.02.2021

This research project aims at investigating the both formal and informal opportunities and barriers refugee students encounter in the framework of their biographical experiences in the transnational academic space. How do they evaluate their experiences? How can we - through their experiences - gain general knowledge about the positioning of German universities in a transnational academic space? It is not the administrative procedure of Universities to integrate refugee students that is the focus of this research proposal, rather refugee students´ knowledge and experiences of exclusion and inclusion in the German system of higher education. 

With this new focus on the perception of the German system of higher education by refugee students themselves, the project opens up an yet unrecognized perspective in the fields of asylum search and forced migration, global inequality and academic education. This perspective promises the generation of knowledge on the (dis-)functionality of the higher education system in dealing with educational challenges in the transnational educational space along with forced migration.