





































Microsoft Word - 5 Brühwiler Fall 2018.docx


[Expositions 12.2 (2018) 191–205]  Expositions (online) ISSN: 1747–5376 
	

“We’ll Manage”?—European Public Universities and the Refugee Crisis 

 

CLAUDIA FRANZISKA BRÜHWILER 

University of Saint Gallen 

 

 

Introduction: Europe’s Refugee Crisis 

“[Our] great universities simply cannot afford to remain islands of affluence, self-importance and 

horticultural beauty in seas of squalor, violence and despair.”1 Thus declared Ira Harkavy, the 

founder of the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania, and 

reaffirmed his belief that universities were responsible for more than providing excellent research 

and education. In his eyes, universities are required to take care of the communities within which 

they operate and they need to teach their students what it means to be responsible citizens. While 

“horticultural beauty” is seldom a feature setting public2 universities in German-speaking Europe 

apart from their environs, they were and are in fact increasingly challenged to (re-)define their role 

in society and to acknowledge the necessity to take on more than an educator’s stance. These 

changing expectations became particularly apparent in the context of the most recent, still 

persistent crisis3 that Europe—and Germany more than most other countries—is facing. 

 In recent years, Western Europe has been confronted with events that will lastingly affect the 

livelihoods of its citizens, yet no one can tell them what changes to expect or what consequences 

to bear. The EU, its member states, and other European countries had for a long time been trying 

to hold up the streams of migrants intent on reaching the continent via the Mediterranean Sea. In 

2015, however, it became evident to citizens and governments alike that the status quo could not 

be upheld and that a beloved fiction had to be abandoned: The Dublin II Agreements stipulate that 

refugees and migrants have to apply for asylum in the country through which they first enter the 

EU. As a consequence, countries like Germany should, in theory, not have to process applications 

by migrants taking the Mediterranean route. However, with Italy and Greece being overburdened 

by the number of applicants, it has for a long time been tolerated that authorities let migrants pass 

through Italy and submit their application in another member state. Once the main refugee and 

migrant route shifted to the Balkans and numbers kept rising, the breach of the Dublin Agreements 

had disastrous consequences for member countries like Germany and Austria:4 In 2015, Germany 



European Public Universities and the Refugee Crisis 192 
 

became the destination of 1.1 million asylum seekers, more than a third of them from Syria.5 The 

numbers remain high, with 745,545 asylum applications filed in 2016, and nearly a 100,000 

submitted within the first five months of 2017.6 In Switzerland, which is not a member state of the 

EU yet party to both the Schengen and Dublin Agreements, numbers pale in comparison, as 2016 

saw 27,207 people seek asylum.7 At the same time, Switzerland is one of the primary recipients of 

asylum seekers in relation to its own population.8 

 With a view to these migrants and refugees, experts expected a considerable number to be 

highly qualified, having already graduated from university or been forced to abandon their studies. 

With a better integration of these new arrivals in mind, the role of the universities suddenly became 

topical: should they not contribute to overcoming the challenge of integration by welcoming 

qualified refugees as their students? Were they not morally obliged to open their doors to those in 

pursuit of knowledge? Many students, administrators, and professors agreed and reacted to the 

influx of refugees with a remarkable level of dedication. In what follows, the activities they 

engaged in will be briefly outlined. More importantly, though, the article will inquire whether it 

was indeed the responsibility of universities to react to such circumstances—and, if this was the 

case, where limits should be drawn to a university’s activism. 

 

Refugees Welcome?—The Reaction of German and Swiss Public Universities 

In 1956, thousands of Hungarians fled their home-country in reaction to the Soviet Union’s violent 

suppression of the popular uprising. Among them were students, many actively resisting the 

Socialist regime, who had to leave their academic life behind. However, Western Europe received 

them and the other Hungarian refugees with great solidarity. At many a German and Swiss 

university, including the University of St. Gallen, plaques commemorate the generosity with which 

refugee students were met. Some university administrators went beyond simply admitting refugee 

students to their student body; for instance, the University of St. Gallen’s vice president travelled 

to Vienna in person to pick up 200 refugee students.9 Past examples of such charity and dedication 

would often be referenced during the height of the ongoing refugee crisis during which universities 

were trying to write a new history of campus charity. 

German universities were the first to respond to the increasing numbers of refugees during the 

summer of 2015 and launched different initiatives to support prospective students. As a survey by 

the German Rectors’ Conference (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz, HRK) showed, of its 268 member 



193  Brühwiler 
 

	
	

institutions10 sixty responded that they had either already set up services for refugee students or 

that they were in the course of defining such services. Today, most major German universities and 

smaller institutions of higher education have established procedures that define how to deal with 

refugee students interested in continuing their education. These commonly include, as the table 

below shows, courses tailored to the needs of these prospective students that shall enable them to 

follow academic courses. In addition, Universities admitted refugee students to the regular courses 

as auditors, i.e., refugee students may attend regular lectures and seminars, but they cannot earn 

any credit points towards a degree. In the case of the German University of Siegen, help went 

beyond the mere integration of refugees into the student body, by offering parts of its campus for 

a different purpose than originally intended: the University’s gymnasium served as a shelter for 

one year, a temporary home for up to 450 people.11 For the University’s president, Professor 

Holger Burckhardt, it was beyond any doubt that the University had to step in when the 

municipality needed its support: “It is our duty as a university to help. That’s the most important 

thing. We are taking on this responsibility, it is our desire to make a culture of welcome—a 

Willkommenskultur—our own.”12 

 In Switzerland, no university went as far as Siegen, but the majority of the country’s twelve 

public universities opened their doors to refugee students. In comparison to Germany, they 

launched their initiatives with some delay, probably because the situation in Switzerland was less 

dramatic and therefore did not trigger the same sense of urgency. Moreover, cautiousness defines 

Swiss politics and public relations in general which, combined with a strong belief in the principle 

of subsidiarity, may slow down initiatives by public institutions and instead encourage civil society 

to step in. Consequently, the first university to admit refugee students as auditors, the University 

of Basel, primarily did so in response to a student-driven project. Students rather than 

administrators take care of the applications and make sure that the prospective auditors receive 

guidance in the choice of courses.13 In other cases, it was a mixture of individual initiatives and an 

inter-institutional consensus that led to action: swissuniversities, the Swiss counterpart to 

Germany’s HRK, reached out to its member institutions, informing them that the UNHCR was 

urging universities to grant refugees easier access and admonishing them to step up to this 

challenge.14 At my own alma mater, the University of St. Gallen, this coincided with an individual 

senior professor suggesting to our president that we address the refugee situation as an institution 

and academic community. As a result, a Taskforce Migration was founded in fall 2015 and would 



European Public Universities and the Refugee Crisis 194 
 

eventually be coordinated by myself. We started exploring ways and means to help the region in 

its efforts to integrate refugees. Among other services, we established a “discovery semester,” i.e., 

the possibility for refugee students to attend university courses during one term. Such discovery 

semesters seem to have become a staple of university tool kits in catering towards refugee students, 

as we see such programs both in Germany and Switzerland. 

 

Select Universities Enrollment Services for refugees 

 

Germany 

University of Cologne* 52,132 Courses in mathematics and academic German 

for refugees interested in pursuing university 

studies; various teaching initiatives for children 

and adolescents; integration of refugee scholars 

Ludwig-Maximilian University 

of Munich 

51,052 Introductory program that allows refugees to 

earn ECTS points; German courses; various 

initiatives including a Refugee Law Clinic 

Technical University of Berlin 34,428 Language courses for refugees; regular 

students as mentors 

University of Göttingen 30,600 Language course program “Integra” that should 

enable refugees to commence studies; auditor 

status for refugees; Task Force “Geflüchtete” 

(refugees) dedicated to questions of 

integration; Refugee Law Clinic 

University of Siegen 19,506 Pre-college for refugees; peer-mentoring 

program (refugees helping refugees); 200,000 

Euros to sponsor student projects aiding 

refugees 

Leuphana University of 

Lüneburg 

9,239 Open lecture hall (auditing program); bridging 

courses; counselling services. 

 



195  Brühwiler 
 

	
	

Switzerland 

University of Zurich** 26,356 “Discovery semester,” i.e., free access to 

lectures as auditors for up to forty refugees with 

previous university experience; regular 

students as mentors; access to language lab 

University of Geneva 16,484 Project “Horizon académique” (“Academic 

horizon”) offers discovery years for up to 

twenty refugees; students as mentors; courses 

in academic French language skills 

University of Basel 12,852 Project “Offener Hörsaal” (“open auditorium”) 

launched by students to offer refugees a 

discovery semester; students as mentors 

University of St. Gallen 8,232 “Discovery semester” for unlimited number of 

refugees; faculty member as mentor; Taskforce 

Migration (November 2015–September 2017) 

as coordinator for research and philanthropic 

projects 

* Germany’s largest public university; ** Switzerland’s largest public university 

 

Table: An overview of select public universities who opened their doors to refugee 

students 

Source: The information about the activities has been retrieved from the respective 

universities’ websites. Institutions were selected based on their size and the media 

attention they received for their efforts. 

 

 Both in Switzerland and Germany, initiatives for refugee students were met, for the most part, 

with appreciation and received considerable media attention. With attention, however, comes 

scrutiny, and some problematic aspects were soon brought forth. As many universities have come 

to recognize themselves, one major issue lies in the lack of knowledge regarding the educational 

background of asylum seekers.15 Educational backgrounds are usually not recorded during the 

initial asylum application process, and we have no reliable figures as to what number of refugees 



European Public Universities and the Refugee Crisis 196 
 

would indeed qualify as refugee students. For the German state of Bavaria, for instance, between 

seventeen and thirty percent of refugees older than twenty years claim to have an academic 

degree16—this seemingly high percentage is, however, not backed by official numbers and it is not 

reflected in the enrollment in programs for refugee students. Establishing the number of potential 

future students is further complicated by the differences in the respective education systems, 

particularly when we are looking at Germany and Switzerland: both countries are known for their 

so-called dual professional education systems, i.e., well-established apprenticeships combined 

with formal education that lead to nationally recognized diplomas. In Switzerland, only twenty 

percent of the population obtain an advanced high school diploma (Matura), as other, more popular 

professional avenues lead to successful careers.17 This is further complicated by the existence of 

so-called University of Applied Sciences and other institutions of higher education that are not 

classic universities. Consequently, some refugees keen on entering university in their new country 

would have to turn to other institutions of higher education—and might be frustrated at the 

prospect, as they regard such avenues as less prestigious. 

 Frustration is also the sentiment shared by those who may have finished a discovery semester, 

but reach a dead-end: as several German universities acknowledge (and as I have come to realize 

as well for our own efforts), the Achilles’ heel of their programs lies at the transition to regular 

studies.18 On the one hand, some students might realize that either their academic background or 

their language skills render it impossible for them to further pursue their studies. On the other 

hand, funding is a key issue for these hopeful students: scholarships and loans are often 

unattainable, and additional mentoring would require the kind of financial commitment 

universities cannot agree to, in many cases.19 As a matter of course, such obstacles led to criticism 

by left-wing student groups who feel that their refugee peers are not given equal opportunities.20 

A group of innovative students in Germany has therefore developed a new solution to these issues 

by founding their own university: Kiron University offers long-distance courses, MOOCs, and 

online seminars designed by partner universities to which participants can eventually transfer, if 

they pass their online coursework. 

 Criticism stems, however, not only from the political left, but also from the other end of the 

political spectrum. Browsing through comments to online reports on Swiss university programs 

for refugees, one stumbles across questions regarding the usefulness and necessity of such efforts. 

An argument I frequently came across included the fact that only a minority of Swiss citizens ever 



197  Brühwiler 
 

	
	

attended university and little was done to encourage people with professional diplomas to move 

on to university. While one could be tempted to dismiss such considerations as potentially 

xenophobic and an expression of status envy, ignoring them would come at its own risk. After all, 

public universities draw on one main funding source: taxpayers. Blatantly disregarding their 

concerns would (further) alienate them from the institutions that anyway have to fight a reputation 

of being removed from and uninterested in the public’s general concerns and fears.  

 

Welcoming Refugees and the Mission of a Public University: A Contradiction? 

Student organizations, NGOs assisting refugees and migrants in their efforts to adapt to their new 

circumstances, individual professors and administrators as well as those in political circles claim 

that universities are not doing enough to help refugees. In this debate, one question remains 

unasked: Why should universities do more? What requires public universities to become active, to 

basically act as concerned citizens, and to assist refugees? Some will probably quash this question 

as unwarranted if not cynical and as an expression of a conservative-nationalist mind-set, arguing 

that it was a mere question of humanity and a moral obligation to help. However, our states and 

societies have already designated public institutions that are expertly equipped to deal with 

refugees and questions of integration, which have the experience and expertise most universities 

as institutions simply lack. Why, then, the call for action? 

 One source to turn to for an answer is the law: on the one hand, article 26 of the 1948 Universal 

Declaration of Human Rights stipulates every individual’s right to education which, combined 

with the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, ensures this right to refugees as well. 

However, this right is commonly interpreted not to go beyond primary education and does not 

encompass higher education. On the other hand, public universities are subject to statutes, either 

on the state or federal level, which stipulate the purpose and duties of universities. In the case of 

my own university, article 7 of the statute defines teaching and research as its primary purpose 

(§1) which it pursues autonomously (art. 8 §1). The closest the statute comes to defining a 

responsibility for dealing with wider social issues is in the context of education and academic 

culture: article 7 §2 requires the university to promote “a personal and social sense of responsibility 

among its members” and to prepare students to act “according to ethical principles.”21 This is 

mirrored in international efforts such as the 2009 UNESCO World Conference on Higher 

Education in which the participating countries—among them the United States, Germany, and 



European Public Universities and the Refugee Crisis 198 
 

Switzerland—agreed that the “principal objective of higher education institutions should not 

simply be to educate the individual but also to provide future generations with the skills and 

knowledge necessary to address global challenges such as poverty, conflict, and climate change.”22 

In sum, the university does not have a legal obligation to engage in social issues beyond being a 

responsible educator and employer. This does not, however, preclude the university’s right and, 

potentially, moral obligation to go beyond that. 

 Assuming such a moral obligation, though, depends on a certain understanding of a university’s 

general purpose. Said understanding has evolved in the past decades and while some shared, if 

vague ideas can be identified, cultural differences persist, particularly if we compare the German-

Swiss and the U.S. perspective. On both sides of the Atlantic, universities have moved away from 

their original set-up as a shielded, singular community of masters and students—an institutional 

setting that never applied to most American universities and colleges anyway. While the 

development of European universities depended on the relationship with the state, their American 

counterparts were early on shaped by various forces, private and public, that came along with 

different conceptual ideas and visions.23 In Germany, the most impactful vision of higher education 

originated in Prussia, with Wilhelm von Humboldt’s (1767–1835) founding of the University of 

Berlin which would later be named in his honor. As a classic liberal, he defined the university as 

a space that should be free from state interference and grant liberty and autonomy from interference 

to those teaching, researching, and learning in its halls. Although the educational goal still was the 

Weltbürger, the enlightened citizen of the world, Humboldt would deny any institutional 

responsibility beyond that. This perception is reflected in calls for institutional neutrality by the 

university. 

 Today, breaches with this Humboldtian tradition are apparent, both in Germany and 

Switzerland. Apart from never-ending discussions on whether or not the current academic 

programs or publication cultures reflect Humboldtian ideas, we can see this in the institutional-

ization of sustainability reporting and other measures that can be likened to a move towards 

“university social responsibility”24 as the academic counterpart of “corporate social 

responsibility.” A group of public and private German as well as Austrian universities have 

underlined such a commitment by establishing a network dedicated to, as its name says, “education 

by responsibility” (Hochschulnetzwerk Bildung durch Verantwortung). The network’s member 



199  Brühwiler 
 

	
	

universities claim that higher education influences progress in societies and that they were thus 

obliged to pass more than skills and knowledge unto the next generations.25 

 In the United States, the idea that universities cater to more than one stakeholder and are 

anything but isolated islands of learning seems to have reached the mainstream earlier than in 

Germany and Europe. In his seminal treatise The Uses of the University (1963), Clark Kerr—first 

chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, and former president of UCLA—coined the 

term of the “multiversity” which encompasses “a whole series of communities and activities held 

together by a common name, a common governing board, and related purposes.”26 Among these 

purposes and communities ranges the relationship with society and the state at large, and thus the 

question of the university’s social responsibility. Harold T. Shapiro describes the latter as a dual 

role, with the university being “society’s servant and society’s critic.”27 Specifically, he believes 

that universities needed to “raise questions that society does not want to ask and generate new 

ideas that help invent the future, at times even ‘pushing’ society toward it.”28 Others go further 

and promote, like Ira Harkavy, closer ties between universities and local communities, for instance 

by letting their students establish a sense of responsibility for the latter through “service learning” 

and other forms of coursework that forces them to leave the idyllic confines of their campuses. 

Arguably the most dedicated form of social commitment and expression of political views is the 

call and establishment of sanctuary campuses, i.e., of campuses that offer a safe haven to 

undocumented students, either by not cooperating with immigration authorities, symbolically 

supporting these students, or by offering them physical sanctuary.29 

 Good citizen, society’s critic, or a civilly disobedient institution: ideas vary of what the socio-

political role of a university should amount to. One can, however, roughly distinguish two 

approaches: on the one hand, the university is considered an intellectual habitat that should allow 

and empower its members to act responsibly and take on an active role in society, if they so wish; 

on the other hand, the university is seen as responsible to act and take a stance as an institution. 

While the latter approach may be viable for private universities or colleges that have committed 

themselves to a certain worldview and thus may expect or even require faculty and students to 

commit to the same values (or at least tolerate the consequences of such a strong institutional 

identity), public universities cannot and should not be able to do the same. As intended by 

Humboldt, they should strive to remain a habitat for a diversity of opinions and approaches, and 

while they should require adherence to basic liberal principles that define liberal-democratic 



European Public Universities and the Refugee Crisis 200 
 

societies anyway, they cannot and must not expect campus communities to stand as one. 

Universities are not, as we all experience every now and then, democracies. They usually lack 

forums of deliberation that include all stakeholders. They thus can not articulate the political views 

of their members, nor should they try to. The university as an institution has to respect the triad of 

original duties, namely research, education, and public service, as stipulated by their fundamental 

statutes. 

 That does not preclude, however, that universities can be “society’s critics” or offer services to 

a designated group of people: providing information on how to get access to higher education and 

encouraging such steps should generally be considered as part of any public university’s public 

service, irrespective of the status of those approaching its administrators. So, while we may not 

expect universities to replace social workers, we must hold them accountable if they foster an 

environment in which minority students feel unsafe or in which they feel treated unfairly or even 

discriminated against.  

 The role of a critic, though, should be reserved not to the university as an institution, but to its 

members: universities have to foster the kind of diversity—ideological and otherwise—among its 

scholars and other members that society can rely on more than one mirror. Particularly in a country 

such as Switzerland, renowned for its direct democracy, universities should cultivate a climate in 

which debates are possible, in which every member of the academic community can articulate 

their opinion and agree to respectfully disagree. As in every liberal democracy, there are limits to 

the freedom of speech when it is abused, i.e., by instigating violence or rewriting historic facts. 

However, the university should only censor its members in clear cases of such abuse. A unified 

ideological front, an exercise of groupthink and suppression of dissenting opinions, however 

commendable the cause may be, is neither in the interest of the public as the university’s owner 

nor in that of the university itself. 

 

Conclusion 

Helping others feels good. At the same time, it can instill a sense of righteousness and moral 

superiority in the Good Samaritan. Looking at the refugee crisis in 2015, acting German 

Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed optimistically that the country would be able to handle the 

situation: “Wir schaffen das”—“We’ll manage.” The same attitude seems to have pervaded many 

universities when they decided that they needed to become yet another actor in an intricate web of 



201  Brühwiler 
 

	
	

federal and state-level agencies, NGOs, and political parties, all of whom had decades of 

experience in the integration of asylum seekers. While the goals and motives were commendable, 

some universities may have expected too much of themselves in the services they set up and 

ignored the context within which they became active. Opening lecture halls and keeping admission 

procedures transparent, un-bureaucratic, and only as demanding as necessary, should be a policy 

upheld by every public university, irrespective of the group of students that are requesting support.  

 Universities should refrain from engaging in the refugee question beyond the triad of original 

university responsibilities—as institutions, that is. As institutions of higher education, they have 

to guarantee the freedom of research and learning of their members, including the freedom to differ 

from what seems to be the dominant attitude towards the situation of refugee students. If a 

university becomes politically or socially active as an institution, it ignores that fundamental 

freedom of its members and risks to create an environment that will weaken its members’ ability 

to uphold one of their most important duties: to be observant critics of society. As such, they may 

take it upon themselves to enter the kind of research projects and initiate the debates we need to 

enable our societies to cope with challenging situations.  

 

 

Notes 

1. Qtd. in Rice 30. I would like thank Professors Carol McNamara, Christoph Frei, and Lee 

Trepanier for their feedback to earlier drafts of this paper. The views expressed in it are my 

own. 

2. In German-speaking Europe, most universities are public. For this reason, this article will 

simply speak of “universities” whenever it refers to public universities. 

3. The term “crisis” has been heavily criticized in the context at hand, particularly in 

comparison to the number of refugees who fled to Turkey, Lebanon, and other states in the 

Syrian neighborhood. What constitutes a crisis is, after all, a matter of perspective and a 

social construct. I am still using the term given the shared feeling of many citizens, media 

outlets, and governments that the wave of migrants reaching Europe in 2015 was 

unprecedented in terms of numbers and the sense of urgency it instilled in the countries 

that it reached.  



European Public Universities and the Refugee Crisis 202 
 

4. Münkler 6. 

5. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. 

6. Ibid.  

7. Staatssekretariat für Migration 3. 

8. Reimann. 

9. Schwabach. 

10. The HRK includes different types of institutions of higher education, including, for 

example, so-called schools of education (Pädagogische Hochschulen), universities of 

applied sciences (Fachhochschulen), and classic universities. Its members are listed on the 

webpage, though only in German: https://www.hrk.de/mitglieder/mitgliedshochschulen/.  

11. Schopper. 

12. Universität Siegen. My translation. Original wording: “Es ist unsere Aufgabe als 

Universität, zu helfen. Das ist das Wichtigste überhaupt. Diese gesellschaftliche 

Verantwortung übernehmen wir, diese Willkommenskultur möchten wir leben.” 

13. Dawudi. 

14. Letter by swissuniversities from September 2015; on file with the author. 

15. Donzé 12. 

16. Pointner. 

17. Bundesamt für Statistik. 

18. Kirst 5. 

19. Bühlmann. 

20. Bühlmann. 



203  Brühwiler 
 

	
	

21. My translation. There is no official English translation of the statute. Original wording in 

the statute: “Art. 7: Grundsatz. Abs. (1) Die Universität lehrt und forscht in Wirtschafts-, 

Rechts-, Sozial-, Kultur- und Politikwissenschaften. Abs. (2) Sie fördert das persönliche 

und gesellschaftliche Verantwortungsbewusstsein der Universitätsangehörigen und 

bereitet die Studierenden darauf vor, in Beruf und Öffentlichkeit nach wissenschaftlichen 

Methoden und Erkenntnissen sowie nach ethischen Grundsätzen zu handeln. (…) Art. 8: 

Hochschulautonomie und Wissenschaftsfreiheit. Abs. (1) Die Universität erfüllt ihre 

Aufgaben im Rahmen der gesetzlich gewährleisteten Autonomie und wahrt die Freiheit der 

wissenschaftlichen Lehre und Forschung. (…)” 

22. UNESCO 19. 

23. See Trepanier for a short summary of the university’s evolution. 

24. See Vasilescu et al. 4177–4182, on the term and its implications. 

25. Hochschulnetzwerk Bildung durch Verantwortung 6. 

26. Kerr 1. 

27. Shapiro 15. 

28. Ibid., 4–5.	

29. Délano Alonso 55.	

 

Works Cited 

Bühlmann, Manuel. “Salam, der Schnupperstudent.” Zürichsee-Zeitung March 22 2017. 

http://www.zsz.newsnetz.ch/ueberregional/salam-der-schnupperstudent/story/10796531.  

Bundesamt für Statistik. “Maturitätsquote.” April 27, 2017. https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/ 

home/statistiken/bildung-wissenschaft/bildungsindikatoren/bildungssystem-schweiz/ 

themen/abschluesse/maturitaetsquote.html.  



European Public Universities and the Refugee Crisis 204 
 

Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. “Zahlen zu Asyl in Deutschland.” July 13, 2017. 

https://www.bpb.de/politik/innenpolitik/flucht/218788/zahlen-zu-asyl-in-deutschland.  

Dawudi, Khaleda. “Flüchtlinge an der Universität Basel: ‘Offener Hörsaal’, offene Zukunft.” 

Neue Zürcher Zeitung online March 15, 2016. https://www.nzz.ch/karriere/studium/ 

fluechtlinge-an-der-universitaet-basel-offener-hoersaal-offene-zukunft-ld.135671.  

Délano Alonso, Alexandra. “Sanctuary Campus: Resistance and Protection within and 

beyond the University.” The Avery Review 21 (2017), 53–64. http://averyreview.com/ 

issues/21/sanctuary-campus.  

Donzé, René. “Studieren statt Rüebli sortieren.” NZZ am Sonntag December 13, 2015: 12. 

Hochschulnetzwerk Bildung durch Verantwortung. Memorandum: Gesellschaftliche 

Verantwortung an den Hochschulen November 22, 2013. http://www.bildung-durch-

verantwortung.de/Documents/Memorandum-des-Hochschulnetzwerks.pdf.  

Kerr, Clark. The Uses of the University. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963. 

Kirst, Virginia. “Flüchtlings-Universität besteht Reifeprüfung.” Bilanz April 28, 2017: 5. 

Münkler, Herfried. “Die Mitte und die Flüchtlingskrise: Über Humanität, Geopolitik und 

innenpolitische Folgen der Aufnahmeentscheidung.” Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 

66.14/15 (2016): 3–8. 

Pointner, Nico.“So helfen deutsche Unis den Flüchtlingen.” WELT online October 6, 2015. 

https://www.welt.de/regionales/bayern/article147254823/So-helfen-deutsche-Unis-den-

Fluechtlingen.html. 

Reimann, Anna. “Wohin die Flüchtlinge wollen—und wer sie nimmt.” Spiegel online April 

28, 2015. http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/europa-wie-sich-die-fluechtlinge-

verteilen-a–1030879.html.  

Rice, R. Eugene. “Ernest Boyer’s ‘Scholarship of Engagement’ in Retrospect.” Journal of 

Higher Education Outreach and Engagement 20.1 (2016): 29–33. 



205  Brühwiler 
 

	
	

Schopper, Boris. “Universität Siegen bringt 150 Flüchtlinge in Turnhalle unter.” Der Westen 

July 16, 2015. https://www.derwesten.de/staedte/nachrichten-aus-siegen-kreuztal-

netphen-hilchenbach-und-freudenberg/universitaet-siegen-bringt–150-fluechtlinge-in-

turnhalle-unter-id10889379.html.  

Schwabach, Thomas. “Blick zurück: Die Ungarnhilfe 1956.” HSG Focus 1 (2016). 

http://magazin.hsgfocus.ch/hsg-focus–1–2016/artikel/blick-zurueck-die-ungarnhilfe–

1956–9381.  

Shapiro, Harold T. A Larger Sense of Purpose: Higher Education and Society. Princeton: 

Princeton University Press, 2005. 

Staatssekretariat für Migration. “Asylstatistik 2016.” 2017. https://www.sem.admin.ch/dam/ 

data/sem/publiservice/statistik/asylstatistik/2016/stat-jahr–2016-kommentar-d.pdf.  

Trepanier, Lee. “From the Multiversity Cave: Three Reforms.” The Front Porch Republic 

August 10, 2015. http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2015/08/from-the-multiversity-

three-reformations/.  

UNESCO. World Conference on Higher Education: Final Report. Paris, UNESCO 

Headquarters, 2009. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001892/189242e.pdf.  

Universität Siegen. “Flüchtlinge an der Universität Siegen.” Homepage. N.d. 

https://www.uni-siegen.de/fluechtlinge/?SX=3.  

Vasilescu, Ruxandra, Cristina Barna, Manuela Epure, and Claudia Baicu. “Developing 

University Social Responsibility: A Model for the Challenges of the New Civil Society.” 

Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 2 (2010): 4177–4182. 

Verband der Schweizer Studierendenschaften (VSS)/Union des étudiant-e-s de Suisse 

(UNES). Positionspapier: Hochschulzugang für studentische Geflüchtete. Prise de 

position: Accès aux hautes écoles pour les réfugié-e-s étudiant-e-s. Bern: VSS/UNES, 

2017. https://www.vss-unes.ch/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/VSS-Positionspapier-

Hochschulzugang-f%C3%BCr-studentische-Gefl%C3%BCchtete.pdf.  


