New Partnership: University of Duisburg-Essen

With great pleasure we are announcing a new partnership: The University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) and Kiron Open Higher Education have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

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By signing an MoU with Kiron, the UDE is now a member of the Kiron Partner Network. This network works to establish and promote institutional exchange and to take advantage of possible synergy effects. Together, we will aim to identify interfaces between our offers and, where possible, to establish a link between learning offers for the benefit of new target groups.

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The UDE is a state university in North Rhine-Westphalia. As such, it has the task of maintaining and developing science through research, teaching, studies, promotion of young scientists and knowledge transfer. It prepares students for professional activities at home and abroad.

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In order to avoid the emergence of a “lost generation” of young people marked by civil unrest and war, the UDE and Kiron have decided to provide qualified education for refugees, enabling them to better support their home countries in their reconstruction or to integrate into their country of arrival in the best possible way.

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The MoU marks the basis for future collaboration and the exchange of ideas, experiences and best practices. We are specifically proud that our joint efforts are already bearing fruits: until today, four former Kiron students have successfully transferred to the UDE and are now members of the regular student body. One of those students is Abdulrazzak Moustafa or short: Abud. Abud is a Syrian Computer Engineer who has significant work experience in international IT companies and is currently completing his Master’s Programme in Computer Engineering at the UDE.

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He was happy to answer a few questions regarding the application process and the role of digital education.‍

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1. Dear Abud, how was the application process with the University of Duisburg-Essen?

The process was quite different than at other universities, UDE is using a direct admission process, it doesn’t rely on UniAssist.
However, it took me around 4 months, and there is no way to track your application which put me under a kind of stress.‍

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2. How was your start in your study program at the uni?

It was a big challenge for me because I had to move from Berlin to NRW, find a suitable flat, organize logistic stuff, etc. which consumed a lot of time, effort and money.

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On the other hand, from an academic perspective, it took a lot of time to become familiar with the new German educational system, being onboard and engaged with my study plan, and build new relationships with colleagues and classmates. Orientation into the university system here in Germany is not easy for students who come from outside of the EU. During that time, I needed to find someone to be like a mentor in the early stage, in order to figure out what is needed to start successfully. The international office cannot offer a lot of consultations for every student.

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‍3. Which role did digitization / digital learning offers play for you?

UDE used a famous e-learning system, called Moodle. The good thing is that every registered student has access to their subjects materials. Furthermore, some subjects lectures are recorded and available 24/7 from anywhere for watching by this system and much more.

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4. What do you think about the cooperation between Kiron and the University of Duisburg-Essen?

I think that it is a great step for Kiron students, it opens the gate to join UDE and facilitate the admission process for them.‍

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5. What are your current challenges?

The main thing is financing my studies and living expenses. Also, time management is a challenge! I feel that time (day time and the semester) is running too fast. I am trying to manage my lecturers, study, as well as other daily activities in a sufficient way in order to fulfill all duties.