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HU ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ of Applied Sciences and Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ are going to join forces in order to educate refugee students and prepare them for the job market. The two Utrecht-based knowledge institutions are going to organise a preparatory university year, in which refugee students are helped with their education skills, their mastering of the Dutch language and their decisions regarding their follow-up studies.

COOPERATION AGREEMENT

The two universities will stimulate enabling qualified refugees to get to work at their institutions. Today, both institutions will sign one cooperation agreement each with the Foundation for Refugee Students UAF. Aside from their joint projects, the institutions will also make individual agreements with UAF regarding their efforts on education for refugees.

HU UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES

Jan Bogerd, President of the Executive Board of HU ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ, says: "Just like with regular students, we want to further assist refugee students in their (professional) development. Good preparation for the job market is essential for that. A degree is a good start, but real integration comes with a job."

Senior students will supervise refugee students as language buddies. This is in addition to the supervision by Student Counsellors. HU supports the formation of a refugee-student community. HU expressly wants to prepare refugee students for the job market by developing connection programmes for specific sectors together with big employers in the region. These programmes will continue to build on the experiences that are being gained from the pilot of the ICT pre-Bachelor’s Programme for refugee students by UAF, Afas, HU and the city of Utrecht. As an employer, HU will draw refugee students' attention to internship positions and schedule former refugee students as guest lecturers.

UTRECHT UNIVERSITY

Marjan Oudeman, President of the Executive Board of Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ, says: "Our society is being confronted with a large increasing number of refugees. As a ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ, we can and want to contribute to giving highly-educated refugees future perspectives by creating possibilities for them to develop themselves further in the Netherlands."

The university will deploy a specialized supervisory team to intensively supervise motivated and talented refugee students in study-related processes. These processes include obtaining (student) housing and applying for scholarships and training programmes. Student organisations will get to work on making refugee students part of the Utrecht community as fast as possible. Refugee scientists and scientists who have been threatened in their native countries over their academic work are offered temporary safe places to work at the university as part of the project 'scholars at risk'. A number of work-experience positions have been created and could result in job contracts. After all of that, UU's Career Services will help refugees to find internships or jobs outside the university.

UAF

UAF is a non-profit organization that supports and guides highly-educated refugees during their degree programmes and their search for jobs. This concerns refugees who were often already enrolled in a degree programme or employed in their countries of origin. When they arrive in the Netherlands, their already obtained degrees and work experiences often turn out to be insufficient by the standards of the Dutch job market. UAF enables highly-educated refugees to requalify in the Netherlands. By obtaining a Dutch degree, they can find a suitable job that is in accordance with their degree programmes and capacities.