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Radboud Welcomes Newcomers

“I finally feel like myself again, after three difficult years. Since I arrived in the Netherlands, I have been standing before closed doors everywhere I go: I was sent to several asylum seeking centers, I still do not have a permanent residency permit and could not work or study. It caused a lot of instability and fear. But now that I am walking around at the university, I finally feel like doors are opening for me again. I feel like myself again: I am engaging in discussion with people, I am enriching my knowledge and I feel equal to my fellow students.”

– student Radboud Welcomes Newcomers.

In April 2022, the Radboud University started to open bachelor- and premaster courses for free, for refugee students with an academic or pre-academic background.

The initiative is in line with the strategy of the Radboud University, that states that we focus on caring for each other and the world around us. We remain committed to the empowerment of social and cultural minorities. We want to be of meaning. Thereby, we pay special attention to students who are forced to seek refuge in our region.

Radboud Welcomes Newcomers focuses on the strength and unique contribution a refugee student can offer, when they are seen. Refugee students had to leave a lot behind, but they brought their knowledge. If this knowledge gets space in the Netherlands, a new world of opportunities will open. A world in which the refugee student can be of meaning again.

The mission of Radboud Welcomes Newcomers

The mission of Radboud Welcomes Newcomers is to contribute to the wellbeing of this vulnerable group of students by opening the education (partly). This way, we will make a societal contribution towards the integration of students that had to flee their country of origin.

The university is a place where students are allowed to feel like a student again. Where they will be treated like their fellow students and they can decide themselves whether they want to share that they are studying via the Radboud Welcomes Newcomers project. This way, we aim at improving the well-being of the students, and hope that the stress of their daily lives and their history can drift to the background.

  1. Radboud Welcomes Newcomers offers refugee students chances to unfold their talents, broaden their knowledge and successfully integrate into society in the long term.
  2. Research shows that one of the factors explaining lower participation of refugees on the labor market, is the long term exclusion from participating in society. Radboud University sees the importance for refugee students in the region. We offer the opportunity to not be kept ‘on hold’, but keep developing yourselfs. During the wait for a residency permit or while you are learning Dutch.
  3. The programme supports the increase of diversity and broadening of perspectives in the lecture halls. This will also benefit regular students and lecturers at Radboud University. Refugee students bring new, unique and culturally diverse perspectives to our lecture halls.
  4. We let refugee students get acquainted with the Dutch educational system in an accessible way.

This programme - that is set up with the help of the Radboud Foundation - serves as an invitation to the refugee students in the region Arnhem-Nijmegen that feel the space and have the wish to develop themselves: you are welcome!