Case studies and projects

Kiron in Lebanon

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Skill building, training programs, online courses: there are countless methods to prepare for a job and develop the skills needed to perform well at work. But in Lebanon, which hosts the most significant number of refugees per capita, the steep rise in unemployment due to the pandemic and concurrent economic crisis has made it challenging to access upskilling opportunities, especially for under-served communities. 
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To stand out in a shrinking job market, young adults need hands-on experience. To find a solution to address the employability situation, Kiron came together with Virtual Internships (VI) to create a unique blend of remote education and career growth for its learners through the ACCESS Project, supported by SPARK and the Islamic Development Bank &#8211; IsDB, and ISFD. Many students were eager to participate in this pioneering program. 
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Our longstanding partner, Virtual Internships’ mission is to democratize the global workforce so that anyone can land their dream job anywhere, based not on geography but merit. This is particularly valuable for people with refugee or asylum seeker status, who face many bureaucratic barriers. After our students completed their applications, VI matched them to companies in over 19 countries based on their skills, interests and competencies like leadership, communication, career management, intercultural fluency, digital technology and teamwork, thus achieving the project’s objective. 
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By the end of the 3-month program, 43 out of 50 students successfully completed the internship, with 51% receiving either full-time employment, a part-time or contractual position or an internship extension. The biggest takeaways of the participants (97%) from the project were Increased productivity and teamwork skills.

How did ACCESS reach this level of success?
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Conducting sessions in English 
International companies use English as their business language. To make this a priority, most of the interview training, CV writing and job preparation courses were conducted in English. These sessions boosted their English skills and improved their application and interview skills in the professional field. Support officers also helped students to record a video pitch for future internships.
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Adapting to challenges
Internet stability has been a challenge for learners in Lebanon in recent years and makes it difficult for people to study online. Kiron supported students primarily through WhatsApp and supplied mobile internet data bundles to keep students on track. 
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Eihab Ballor, a Kiron student, described, “The whole experience is a highlight for me. It was the most unforgettable two months of my life. I&#8217;ve learned skills I would never learn without this chance. I&#8217;ve been able to make relationships worldwide. I&#8217;ve been allowed to be introduced to other cultures, and this internship was the achievement of my year. So I want to thank everyone who was responsible for this opportunity. “You made my life better!”
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Combining preparatory training with hands-on, virtual experience has proved an effective pathway to the job market. With the success of the first cohort behind us, we want to scale this program both in Lebanon and other countries to bridge even more gaps in employment. 
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Reach out to Kiron Lebanon Country Director, <a style="color: #33cccc;" href="mailto:carine.borkhoche@kiron.ngo">Carine Borkhoche</a> to learn how you can support this program or co-create similar impactful programs with us!

Career readiness goes virtual

This category for select community posts for landing pages slider

Project insights

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Kiron partnered with Western Union Foundation for a 9 months project with the aim of providing marginalized and underserved communities in Jordan and Lebanon the skills needed to enable good education and job opportunities. 
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Based on the availability of the students, blended and self-paced online learning cohorts were introduced. In total, 300 students took English courses and digital literacy training on the Kiron Campus.
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At the end of the courses, selected students &#8211; based on their performance and their commitment towards their courses &#8211; were granted one-on-one digital literacy sessions with their instructor.
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The students reported being satisfied with this program along with Kiron’s digital courses, which helped them enter the job market with more confidence in having the necessary skills and knowledge.

Western Union Foundation Project

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The UNHCR, through the Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative Fund &#8211; DAFI, has been supporting refugees in obtaining their university degrees since 2014. 
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Kiron Lebanon partnered up with Semeurs d’avenir (SDA) and Institut Européen de Coopération et de Développement (IECD) to implement the DAFI scholarship program in Lebanon. In 2021, 87 students benefited from academic and personal follow-up and extracurricular activities such as initiating them to serve their communities through volunteering and providing them with extra online courses in skills, language and digital skills, and job readiness.
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As a recognition for their dedication and commitment, Kiron, along with the partners and donors, celebrated 34 students in an online graduation ceremony despite these challenging times.

DAFI Project

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<h3>IMPactDigital – the internationalization of universities: innovative measures to personalize university entry through digitalization</h3>

Period: 
January 2019 – December 2019
Objectives: 
Improving academic opportunities for international students through digital study preparation
As part of the joint project IMPactDigital, Kiron and its partners are developing innovative digital measures to improve the academic success of international students in Germany.
The project aims to address a variety of challenges across different stages in the “student journey” for prospective international students. This includes the development of scalable digital counseling services and orientation tools to support international students in finding the right study programs and to better understand the higher education landscape in Germany. Furthermore, personalized courses and materials are developed to effectively prepare prospective students for academic studies in Germany. Applicants to German universities are envisioned to discover knowledge and skills gaps early-on through digital competence assessments and online language examinations early in their journey.  This will contribute to decreasing potential academic challenges and university drop-out rates over the longer term.
The successful cooperation of the partners in the IMPactDigital project is based on the results of various research and development projects undertaken collectively in two previous projects:  INTEGRAL2 and INTEGRAL+. The experiences and findings of the consortium, working exclusively with refugees in these previous projects, will be adapted and tested to the needs of international students.
“Together with the project partners, Kiron would like to enable long-term study success for international student groups by providing modern and international solutions for access to education. Digitally supported learning formats offer the opportunity to improve expectation management in vocational options, to reduce existing hurdles and to make a contribution to more educational equity”.
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<li>Laura Marwede, Chief Partnerships Officer at Kiron and Network Coordinator</li>
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The project’s research focuses on four major fields of action, encompassing four working packages together with the RWTH Aachen University, the TH Lübeck and the Society for Academic Study Preparation and Test Development (g.a.s.t. e.V.) .
Funder: The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Find out more in the<a href="https://kiron.ngo/2019/02/14/hohere-chancen-fur-internationale-studierende-durch-digitale-studienvorbereitung/"> press release</a> (in German).
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Our partner: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

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PADILEIA &#8211; Partnership for Digital Learning and Increased Access: Jordan and Lebanon
The Project
The Partnership for Digital Learning and Increased Access (PADILEIA) supports displaced Syrians seeking access to higher education in Jordan and Lebanon. 
The project is implemented in partnership with King’s College London (as lead partner), Al al-Bayt University in Jordan, the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, and FutureLearn in the UK. It is one of nine projects within the innovative SPHEIR portfolio (Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education Innovation and Reform), funded by UK Aid through the Department for International Development (DFID). 
PADILEIA focuses on expanding choice and pathway possibilities for refugee and host community students who have previously faced insurmountable barriers to pursuing their education. 
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<td>Impact
It has been an exciting year of growth, collaboration and growing impact for the PADILEIA project. The partnership provides blended academic programs, including Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), targeted online learning, and classroom-based learning to Syrian refugees and members of the host communities in both countries. Technology-enhanced learning environments broaden access to high-quality educational programs, providing a foundation for further higher education and potentially preparing students to contribute to the rebuilding of post-conflict Syria and integration into the workforce more broadly.</td>
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Partnership for Digital Learning and Increased Access

Period: May 2017 – October 2021
Kiron works together with its project partners: 
Al al-Bayt University (Jordan), American University of Beirut (Lebanon), King’s College London (UK), FutureLearn (UK) addressing the higher education needs of Syrian refugees and displaced people in Jordan and Lebanon until October 2021. 
The Partnership for Digital Learning and Increased Access (PADILEIA) aims to support displaced Syrians seeking access to higher education. The partnership will provide blended academic programs, including Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), targeted online learning, and classroom-based learning to Syrian refugees and members of the host communities. Technology-enhanced learning environments will broaden access to high-quality educational programs, providing a foundation for further higher education and potentially preparing students to contribute to the rebuilding of post-conflict Syria and integration into the workforce more broadly.
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This project is supported by the <a href="http://www.spheir.org.uk/">Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education Innovation and Reform</a> (SPHEIR), a new initiative funded by UK aid through the <a href="https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Forganisations%2Fdepartment-for-international-development&amp;data=01%7C01%7Claura.banks%40kcl.ac.uk%7C74c96127365942ac84e008d57886ea27%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0&amp;sdata=tNovzaTkjW%2FbIBDKqUa2Lqk9utCkQ2uN8uJcTW%2BZPTY%3D&amp;reserved=0">Department for International Development</a> (DFID) and managed by the British Council, Universities UK International and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Contact for information:
Anna Miller 
PADILEIA Project Manager 
anna.miller@kiron.ngo
Find out more about the project <a href="https://padileia.org/">here</a>.

Supported by:
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Partners:
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Our partner: UK Aid/Department for International Development (DFID)

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The Project 
Since 2016, the Volkswagen Group and Kiron have been cooperating to support refugees on their pathway to higher education. In an effort to provide Kiron students with professional opportunities while studying or early on in their working careers, Volkswagen has organized a range of workshops on relevant topics such as job market access, integration and women empowerment. With this project, we especially want to promote better access for refugee women with an interest in STEM subjects, to the German higher education and labor market.  
Impact
The jointly-developed professional guidance program was developed especially with female refugee students in mind, with the aim to foster exchange between the students and Volkswagen employees. One of the highlights of the program was the kick-off workshop at the Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg, where participants visited the Volkswagen site, met the VfL women’s soccer team, and took part in an intercultural workshop. In 2018, the second round of the program came to a close, and in total, twenty-eight Kiron students and Volkswagen employees participated.

Period: December 2016 – December 2020
Since 2016, Volkswagen Group and Kiron Open Higher Education have been cooperating to support refugees in their pathway to higher education. As part of the collaboration, Volkswagen has initially funded 100 study places for Kiron students. A particular focus of this mutual effort is on the STEM study fields: computer science and mechanical engineering.
In efforts to provide Kiron students with enhanced opportunities prior to and early on in their professional careers, Volkswagen has collaborated on a multitude of endeavors including aiding refugee students through <a href="https://www.volkswagenag.com/de/news/refugee-aid/2017/110/visionaerer-studierenden-workshop---integration-im-wedding.html">integration workshops.</a>
In continuum, a recent <a href="https://www.volkswagenag.com/de/news/stories/2017/12/volkswagen-guides-show-refugees-the-way.html">professional guidance program</a> (“Lotsenprogramm”) was piloted with the aim of fostering exchange between refugee students and Volkswagen employees. The majority of Volkswagen guides are recent graduates and doctoral students, enabling information sharing about either the recently finished studies or the starting of a working career in Germany from a familiar young-minded perspective. Furthermore, Volkswagen offered pre-study internships which are obligatory for studying Mechanical Engineer at several German universities.

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Volkswagen guides and Kiron students
&#8220;Volkswagen supports students not only with 100 study places, particularly focusing on the MINT study field, but moreover enables mentoring and guidance by Volkswagen employees, as well as internship opportunities giving insight and perspective into daily work, becoming familiar with our subject-specific issues. This is how we accompany dedicated prospective academics along their path of professional development.&#8221;
Ariane Kilian, Coordinator of Volkswagen Group Refugee Support, Volkswagen Group
&#8220;We are happy to be able to encourage and support dedicated young professionals in their journey towards obtaining an academic degree. Due to the high technical qualification requirements in the automotive industry, this path helps lead to high standards of language skills and certified educational qualifications. As such, we progress to strengthen these two components over the long term and continue our commitment to working with refugees in the coming years. I will also be raising this subject during the information exchange discussion with Angela Merkel this evening.&#8221;
Dr. Karlheinz Blessing, Management Board, Human Resources &amp; Organization, Volkswagen Group

Our partner: Volkswagen

Partners

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The Project
BLESS, a three-year collaboration between Kiron and the H&#038;M Foundation creates an innovative and supportive learning environment for students to achieve study success, facilitate efficient transfer processes, and implement scalable activities for students worldwide.
The project focuses on female students by offering additional support services including offline practical learning support, student community building and online study material. 
Impact
As part of BLESS, we held six offline classes in Berlin and Munich where students could come together and learn. We also conducted our first-ever Women’s Week in April 2018 with a focus on refugee women and higher education. A roundtable with the topic “The future is female” connected women from the political, legal, academic, and digital sectors with our students and the wider community. BLESS was also crucial in expanding our online community and our digital campus through additional learning resources and technical support. Our extensive outreach and communications campaign allowed us to reach wide parts of the community in Berlin and beyond.

BLESS – Building a Learning Environment for Study Success
Kiron Open Higher Education is happy to announce a new partnership with the H&amp;M Foundation: project BLESS (Building a Learning Environment for Study Success). The H&amp;M Foundation is a non-profit global foundation, privately funded by the Stefan Persson family, founders and main owners of fashion company H&amp;M.  Through BLESS, Kiron and the H&amp;M Foundation will create an innovative and supportive learning environment to achieve study success, facilitate efficient transfer processes, and implement sustainable scaling activities. The project has started in fall 2017 and will run until September 2020.
Obtaining and interpreting student progress data is necessary for the design and personalization of Kiron’s learning platform and student support services. To better identify student needs and obstacles to learning, we will conduct surveys of 1,500 students. Based on our findings, innovative student learning resources will be created through the production and collection of Open Educational Resources available on Kiron Campus as well as open to the public. Moreover, we have implemented a central repository for integrating study progress data from disparate sources. A paper describing the repository is available for download <a href="https://kiron.ngo/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/BLESS_paper_partitab-3.pdf">here</a>.

Ensuring our students’ success also requires an interactive and supportive community where students, as well as other supporters, enable each other to be motivated, active and fruitful in their student journey. Therefore, we envision creating an interactive peer-to-peer community and a student forum volunteer program. The creation of a virtual peer-to-peer community through the Kiron Forum will enable group discussion, chats, and meetings – always guided and secured through a dedicated online community manager. A student forum volunteer program will allow us to ensure that students’ needs are considered while we also continuously improve the community. Within the program, we will develop and implement a system to offer guidance, training, and rewards (such as badges) to active volunteers.

Our partner: HM Foundation

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As part of the H&amp;M Foundation’s continued commitment to education, it partnered with Kiron Open Higher Education to support Kiron students throughout their studies. One of the main tenets of Kiron’s learning approach is the provision of MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses), which allows students to study at their own pace online. While this flexibility is key for many of our students, digital learning can also be an isolating experience. That is why we identified a strong learning community as one key factor in our students’ success. “Building a Learning Environment for Study Success” (BLESS), Kiron’s three-year project with the H&amp;M Foundation, allows us to create an innovative and supportive learning environment for refugees to achieve study success and build community.
In the past years, Kiron’s Direct Academics Team (DA) conducted several offline student weekends to find even more new, innovative ways to enable academic and cultural discussions. Online and Offline DA tutorials are organized for specific modules where students reported difficulties with their learning process. Online tutorials consist of small-group learning formats and courses that mirror more traditional classroom settings. Tutorials and courses typically run for 8-10 weeks and serve 10-15 students using online conference technology such as Google Hangouts and Google Classroom. Tutorials and courses complement the curriculum and support students in the successful completion of their studies by providing a space to work through content and interact with instructors and fellow students. Our offline DA classes take place during study weekends and allow us to give students space where they can interact face-to-face. Within the BLESS project, we offered twelve offline DA classes over the course of three years, where students can meet each other in person. As of May 2019, we have been able to offer 8 classes during our study weekends, with two classes specifically for female learners. BLESS DA-classes covered such diverse topics as university exam preparation in Business and Economics, courses in computer science or CV writing. During the BLESS women’s week in April 2018, a female computer scientist spoke about her experience as a woman working in a traditionally male-dominated sector in a DA tutorial.
Offline activities provide opportunities for students to get to know one another, as well as, Kiron employees, with whom they are usually only in virtual contact. We are grateful to the H&amp;M Foundation for providing us and our students with these opportunities.
– in cooperation with the H&amp;M foundation.

Exploring possibilities with online learning

Meet our students

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As part of the H&amp;M Foundation’s continued commitment to education, they partnered with Kiron Open Higher Education, to enable refugees to access digital learning opportunities. One of the main tenets of Kiron’s learning approach is the provision of MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses), which means students can study at their own pace online. A key obstacle to this approach, however, is providing the students with a sense of community with each other, and therefore there is a need to find even more new, innovative ways to bring the community together and generate academic and cultural discussions. As part of a collaboration, the H&amp;M Foundation and Kiron developed a targeted project, “Building a Learning Environment for Study Success (BLESS)”. The BLESS project has a multi-pronged approach: creating study groups, making design changes, and organising seminal events that students could really engage in, such as Women’s Week.

Rania’s Story
One of our students who took part in these “offline” events in Germany was Rania, a journalist and activist from Egypt. Rania grew up in in the bustling city of Cairo, in a close-knit family with her sister and mother. Originally, she trained as a teacher and worked in a school for three years before switching to journalism, which she describes as happening “by accident”. “My sister was a journalist who was given a very difficult assignment by the newspaper she worked for. She came to me extremely worried and said she was too scared to do it, so I went in her place, got all the interviews I needed and came back in one piece.” That experience ignited a sense of activism in Rania and she left her education career to work as a journalist, and with local NGOs as a human rights activist.
In 2015, after she wrote in opposition to a political leader after the military coup, it became impossible for her to stay in Egypt. As a consequence, Rania came to Germany at that point as a political refugee.

The Future
She says that being involved in education has been instrumental to her life here. Currently, she is enrolled in full-time German and English courses, as well as studying political science with Kiron, and taking additional preparatory courses at Bard College in Berlin. Her goal is to become an academic researcher in the field of political science. At the moment she is awaiting the results of her German test and to see whether she will get accepted to an MA in Social Science at Humboldt University in Berlin. “The most difficult thing about studying in Germany is trying to move into another field of study, after my bachelor’s degree in education,” she says. “Studying with Kiron has allowed me to be able to prove my interest in the field of social sciences, which I hope will help my application for the master’s program.” Eventually, she would like to continue then to enroll in a Ph.D. program related to political activism.

Transform through education: Rania&#8217;s story

– Our partners help us turn ideas into action.

Case studies

– Let’s work together

Want to take action

Donate to Kiron and support our work of providing an excellent online learning environment to students worldwide, completely free of charge.

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Find out more about our donations here or scroll down to see how we engage with our partners.

Ways you can support us:

More information on supporting our work in:

Ways you can support us: Ways you can support us:

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Kathrin Dischereit

Our supporters:

Along with our partners, we ensure that vulnerable populations receive access to high-quality educational options, tailored to their needs - be it to learn a new skill, start a business or prepare for university.

– Shape the future of digital education.

Partner with Kiron

Whether it’s a grant to support our most innovative work, a customised program to empower our students, or co-creating digital educational solutions - we want to explore partnership opportunities with you.

Our key partnership areas:

Why partner with Kiron?

Your contributions make a real difference and will equip Kiron students with the knowledge and skills to experience a brighter future.

Partner with us

– In supporting Kiron, you support our goal to provide equal access to education for all.

Support our mission

partner with us

Become a member of Kiron Academic Network and get connected to other academic partners with mutual interests and projects

Contribute to Sustainable Development Goal 4 (quality education)

Multiply your impact by investing in scalable digital solutions that improve the lives of Kiron students worldwide 

Shape our policy recommendations  with your expertise to identify the opportunities for enhancing learning through digitalisation

Benefits of academic and research Institutions  partnerships:

We can collaborate to create innovative academic content, help advance credit recognition and the profile of digital and blended learning, and activate new technologies to advance the accessibility of education worldwide.

These are our partners

Academic and Research Institutions

As an academic partner, we can work together to improve policy and practice in the field of accessibility and mobility in the education sector.

Contribute to Sustainable Development Goal 4 (quality education) with SDG corporate reporting opportunities and increased investor confidence

Customise your program to meet the needs of your company and employees

Provide corporate leadership in the economic empowerment of our refugee learners through skills development, labour market and entrepreneurial initiatives

Public recognition on Kiron.ngo

Benefits of corporate  partnerships:

Your contributions make a real difference and will equip Kiron students with the knowledge and skills to experience a brighter future.

Corporate

As a corporate partner, we can work together to co-create innovative educational products and services for our students worldwide.

Invest in the economic empowerment of our learners through skills development and jobs market entry

Multiply your impact by investing in scalable digital solutions that improve the lives of Kiron students worldwide  

Provide leadership on inclusive strategies around migration and asylum policies 

Benefits of foundations partnerships:

<h4>SUCCESS
The Project</h4>
The 3-year research project SUCCESS is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), with the goal to improve Kiron’s innovative educational concept.
Research studies have shown that students with a migration background tend to have a higher risk of dropping out of university. In cooperation with the RWTH Aachen University, the Munich University of Applied Sciences and the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Kiron aims to close this research gap. As part of SUCCESS, the four partners look at the impact of approaches that aim to enhance and ensure the sustained study success of refugees, over the course of three years.
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<h4>Impact</h4>
We work closely together with our three academic partners, who are evaluating Kiron’s services within SUCCESS as well as implementing new tools to support our students during their studies. The goal is to contribute to the study success of Kiron students through an online-self-assessment tool for students that allows a comparison of interests and expectations for studying, the assessment of students’ prior knowledge in their respective study subject as well as evaluating the effects of related support and study support measures to increase study success of refugees.</td>
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Students with a migration background, first-generation academics, persons without a formal university entrance qualification or students who have been out of school for a prolonged period of time tend to have a higher risk of dropping out of university. Although this is a pressing issue in higher education policy, empirical evidence on effective measures to address these challenges is still scarce.
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In cooperation with the RWTH Aachen University, the Munich University of Applied Sciences and the University of Mainz, Kiron aims to close this research gap. Within the framework of the project SUCCESS – “Study Success and Opportunities for Refugees in Higher Education – An Effectiveness Analysis” (“Studienerfolg und Studienchancen für Geflüchtete – Wirksamkeitsanalysen”) – the four partners examine the impact of approaches that try to enhance and ensure the sustained study success of refugees over the course of three years. Using the example of Kiron, they seek to understand how refugees can study effectively, and achieve long-term success at university. Thus, the project seeks to strengthen Kiron’s innovative educational online platform, generating broader insights that can be transferred to other contexts and guide further research.
The research project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with a total budget of €1.2 million (January 2017 – December 2019). It also builds on findings from our second project funded by the BMBF – INTEGRAL² – which strives to improve and further refine Kiron’s innovative educational concept.
The research project focuses on three phases: (a) study preparation, (b) online studies with Kiron, and (c) transition to one of Kiron’s partner universities.
The University of Mainz (Prof. Dr. Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, Chair of Business and Economics Education) takes the project lead, while Kiron is responsible for the recruitment of students and the data collection for quantitative analyses: Kiron students will take part in surveys and interviews, which in turn will provide insights into the question of how higher education for refugees can be delivered more effectively. In return, Kiron will share the results with their students, enabling them to reflect upon their study progress.

“Turning a challenge into a chance”: This project, supported both refugees and vulnerable communities. 150 students were recruited and followed a blended learning program in 3 different cities in Jordan. The main goal was for them to study Computer Science, English and Life Skills courses both online and offline.
 
The students were also introduced to the concept of entrepreneurship and transferred the skills acquired to come up with their own projects and ideas. They then had the opportunity to connect with organisations that might support their initiatives or offer them job opportunities. As a result, 7 successful projects were created by our students. Each group consisted of 3-4 students and pitched their ideas to potential funders and business incubators to get the necessary support to take their ideas/projects to the next level.

Our partner: Ford Foundation

Foundations 

As a foundation partner, we can work together to create real change through innovation in the education sector. Engage our student community and increase the recognition of digital learning pathways worldwide.

Invest in the economic empowerment of our learners through skills development, and  labour market entry

Benefits of governmental  institutions  partnerships:

Governmental Institutions

As a governmental institution partner, we can work together to pioneer new innovations in digital education through research and contribute to policy and advocacy on education at a national, regional and global level.

Support our mission– In supporting Kiron, you support our goal to provide equal access to education for all.

01 – Donate

02 – Partner with us

Partner with Kiron– Shape the future of digital education.

Why partner with Kiron?Our key partnership areas:

Case studies– Our partners help us turn ideas into action.

Our supporters:– Let’s work together

Want to take action– Let’s work together

Ready to join our mission?