Huge demand for refugee courses at Germany universities

Most finished integration courses, but few ended up with advanced German skills – and the vast majority were male

German universities were overwhelmed by the number of refugees seeking integration courses, according to new data that shed light on how institutions coped with the unprecedented influx.

More than 60 per cent of universities reported more demand than they expected in 2016 for Integra, a university preparation course of language classes and subject specific lessons. Just 7 per cent reported lower demand than anticipated.

Although the majority of refugees successfully completed the courses, just one in 10 finished with a sufficiently advanced level of German to begin a university course in German, the survey found.

As a result, many will have had to wait until they could join a course, according to the report, “Integration of Refugees in German Universities”, from the German Academic Exchange Service. About half finished with intermediate German, and the rest were at unclassified or beginner level of proficiency.