Refugee integration as part of internationalization: A new social responsibility for universities?

​This study reports on research conducted in summer 2017 by four researchers from the Berlin Refugee Research Group that interviewed 14 university administrators working with refugee students seeking access. The objectives of the study were to learn how university administrators were implementing DAAD funding to create new programming aimed at preparing aspiring refugee students to officially enroll in the university curriculum. The key findings were that rather than perceiving the addition of refugee students as a ‘crisis’ the way the media generally described it, university administrators saw the refugee influx as a chance to adjust existing programming and also advance new initiatives that in the long run will serve the entire student body, from refugee students to international students to the majority domestic students (Schmidt 2018).