From Refugee Programmes to a Benefit for All

Since 2015, higher education institutions (HEI) in Germany have massively expanded their offers for refugees. Based on the voluntary commitment of students and staff* and financially supported by the BMBF/DAAD, they have developed a variety of innovative support formats. Some HEIs are also using the refugee programmes as laboratories to set up comparable programmes for other student groups based on the experience gained there. The aim of this article is to find out under which conditions HEIs can transfer programmes to other target groups. The basis for this are qualitative interviews with representatives of some HEIs who, building on the offers for refugees, have also set up similar offers for other target groups. The results are discussed before the theoretical background of different institutional reproduction mechanisms. This shows that in addition to the study preparation programmes for refugees, individual universities offer parallel programmes for refugees and international students. These were set up on the basis of the positive experience with the programmes for refugees. There is a tremendous potential for learning from the programmes for refugees for other target groups. Utilitarian, functional, legitimate, and power reproduction mechanisms can explain how existing institutional logics promote and restrict the transfer possibilities.