Helping Refugee Students
If you are a student, researcher, lecturer, or professor at Bamberg and would like to help Ukrainian students become part of our university community, here you’ll find important information on Ukrainian refugee aid and, most importantly, specific suggestions for how you can help.
A. Brief information on the general framework for refugees in Germany
When Ukrainian citizens leave their country because of the war and register as refugees in Germany, they receive
- access to health care
- assistance with finding a place to stay and with rent payments
- financial means to ensure a livelihood
- access to the labor market, i.e. regular employment is permitted.
Registering as a refugee is absolutely essential for getting access to these support measures.
Link to the page "What are the first steps - How does the registration work": https://www.regierung.oberfranken.bayern.de/presse/aktuelle_meldungen/2022/ukraine/
The University of Bamberg offers Ukrainian refugee students who are currently enrolled at a university in their home country quick ways to enroll at Bamberg for the winter semester 2022/23.
B. Tandem Programme for Refugee Students
Based on the regular tandem programme, the International Office arranges tandems between Bamberg students and Ukrainian refugee students. These student tandems are meant to support refugees at their arrival in Bamberg, help them get acquainted with the various structures of daily life here at the university, and make it easier to meet other people.
Currently, most Ukrainian refugee students who have arrived at Bamberg have studied here before and are thus familiar with the university; they still might very much like to participate in the tandem program. The number of refugee students will increase in the coming weeks, and so will the need for tandem partners.
Bamberg students who want to participate in the tandem program can contact the Intenational Office at: refugees.international(at)uni-bamberg.de
C. Courses Taught in English
Various lecturers have offered to teach their courses in English now. These offers are most crucial, and highly welcome.
Even though it is difficult to predict how many refugee students will actually attend regular courses at Bamberg university, a broad spectrum of English-language seminars and lectures makes it much easier for them to consider participating in regular study programs. The numbers of refuges students who’ll want to take such regular study courses taught in English will increase further, and probably significantly so, in the winter semester 2022/23. Please consider this constellation as you plan your courses.
Offering seminars and lectures in English comes with extra work and brings change for Bamberg students and lecturers. However, regarding our deep commitment to be open to the world, and to become more international also by way of teaching in various languages, this would be an important signal, especially, but not only, for the Ukrainian refugees.
(D) Student assistant contracts, contracts for part-time teaching, etc.).
(Currently, students registered as refugees - i.e. students who receive state benefits as refugees - unfortunately have no additional income possibility because there is no "exempt amount." This means that if students are registered as refugees, any income, e.g. from a student assistant contract, will be completely deducted from their state benefits and will therefore contribute nothing to improving their economic situation).