Integration Campus

A qualification programme for refugees with a higher education entrance qualification

The project Integration Campus started in October 2016 and officially ended in December 2020. The qualification programme was organised by the Institute for Lifelong Learning (IAW). The aim of the Integration Campus was to prepare refugees with higher education entrance qualifications for studies and the labour market in Germany.

The qualification programme included the imparting of technical, linguistic and cultural training content. This was supplemented by social integration measures as well as study and career orientation. In addition to a language roundtable, a mentoring programme, excursions to companies and the arrangement of internships, regular events were held by the student advisory service and application training. Participants also had access to the campus infrastructure, including university sports and the opportunity to join student clubs.

Learning German, developing professionally and personally, and making contacts: During the programme, we helped refugees to gain a foothold in Germany and to integrate optimally into society. We supported them in the best possible way with intensive supervision and an intercultural campus. And with success: many of them succeeded in laying the decisive foundation for their further development in Germany during the programme.

In addition to the university itself, the Integration Campus also received financial support from other sources. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research launched Integra, a funding programme for universities, colleges and preparatory courses, which finances projects for refugees to prepare them for their studies. The Integration Campus was offered in cooperation with the city of Ingolstadt. The project was also funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and Art and the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior and Integration.

With the end of the Integration Campus, a new programme for refugee academics started at the THI in the winter semester 2020/21, again organised by IAW. The three-phase university certificate THIntegriert, which includes the teaching of digital professional skills as well as linguistic and interdisciplinary modules, serves to prepare participants for the regional labour market.