By Rick Noack
While affordable tuition for undocumented immigrants is a remote prospect in some parts of the world, about 60 German universities are employing a radical strategy.
They are offering refugees the chance to attend courses as guest students, without charging tuition fees.
Refugees from Syria and elsewhere receive articles for daily use from donors at a distribution centre for refugees in Germany.Credit: Reuters
In fact, they even pay for transport and offer scholarships to pay for books, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported.
Germany's higher education system couldn't be more distinct from models such as that in the US: tuition has been free at German universities since the beginning of October.
Volunteers work at a distribution centre to provide refugees with articles for daily use in Germany.Credit: Reuters
The country offers more than 900 English-language degrees that even Americans could pursue for free, with courses ranging from engineering to social sciences.
In the past, asylum seekers would have had to pay a fee, making it impossible for nearly any of them to attend courses. Moreover, some regional laws prohibited refugees from studying.
Although migrants remain unable to earn degrees while their asylum applications are being processed, attending the lectures under the new scheme is supposed to enable them to learn German more quickly, and to complete courses in preparation for a potential degree.
If a refugee's asylum application is accepted by authorities, it is then possible to continue the selected courses as a degree-seeking student.
Germany offers free tuition to everyone who is in the country legally because it needs to attract more skilled workers to fit its high demand and low unemployment.
But the vast majority of refugees will not be allowed to stay permanently.
Each student costs the German government about $US10,000 ($13,600) a year.
Moreover, the country's universities are already packed with students who hold German citizenship; bringing in refugees will make colleges even more crowded.
So why are some German universities so keen on having refugees sit in their lecture halls?
"Migration is a task for all of society, and universities must do their part," university of Hildesheim president Wolfgang-Uwe Friedrich told Handelsblatt.
Given that German universities do not work like enterprises that have to compete against each other, they are free to broaden their mission.
Offering such programs to refugees is a voluntary decision taken by university directors. So far, the diversity of colleges that participate ranges from elite institutions, such as the University of Munich, to smaller ones such as the University of Hildesheim.
Whereas asylum seekers have faced anger, uneasiness or even violence in the past - mainly by rural eastern Germans - students and city dwellers have been much more welcoming.
In many cities, refugee centres had to decline gifts and donations by neighbours because they had already received too much support.
The free guest student program could not exist without the support of volunteers. Induction and language courses are organised by fellow students, and sponsors offer financial aid to share the burden.
That way, colleges can even offer much-needed psychological counselling for those traumatised by what they experienced in their home countries, such as Syria.
Germany, nevertheless, faces substantial challenges in dealing with the rising number of refugees in the country: 800,000 are expected to arrive this year alone.
So far, it has proven difficult to accommodate even one-quarter of them.
Refugees may be able to study for free in Germany, but many will still have to sleep in tents.
Washington Post