Kiron decides against life as a fighter and in favor of education. He becomes the teacher of Jason, Achilles and Odysseus. After his death, he does not have to go to Hades, but is allowed to continue to exist as an eternal star image of the centaur in the night sky. Kiron returned in autumn 2015. In a coworking space in Berlin Kreuzberg to teach refugee students all over the world.
When Vincent Zimmer and Markus Kreßler talked at a conference in 2014 about what should change in the education system for refugees, they quickly agreed: an uncomplicated and rapid enrollment process was needed so that refugees could be integrated into the education system as quickly as possible. This conversation is the reincarnation of Kiron. More precisely, the birth of Kiron Open Higher Education .
Waiting to study
To date, refugees – not just in Germany – have often been condemned to wait for months or even years. Waiting for the recognition of refugee status, waiting for the recognition of the qualifications from your country of origin, waiting for the recognition of language courses, waiting, waiting, waiting. Valuable time when life stands still. At Kiron Open Higher Education, all of these waiting times are eliminated. Students can enroll and take courses online at Kiron Open Higher Education from anywhere in the world. They then have two years to submit the relevant papers. “Kiron doesn't want to create the possibility for people to cheat their way through the traditional education system and thus obtain a qualification. Rather, refugees should be given the chance to become part of the education system and thus also the job market,” explains Nora Hauptmann, Head of NGO Relations at Kiron Open Higher Education.
Kiron as an intermediary
Strictly speaking, Kiron Open Higher Education is not a real university in the traditional sense, but rather an intermediary between traditional educational institutions and MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) .
After enrolling, the students only need working internet access and then take MOOCs from Harvard, Stanford and Co. on the Kiron platform. After two years, the students can - provided they meet the relevant requirements of the individual universities - go to one of the currently 50 partner universities from Kiron, for example RWTH Aachen, HNE Eberswalde and Heilbronn University. The partner universities have promised Kiron that they will recognize the achievements of the MOOCs and convert them into credit points in order to then enroll the students in a higher semester.
Graduation is not always the goal
The first year of the online university started in October 2015 with almost 1,000 students from all over the world. “Although our capacities are not endless, we are far from reaching our limits,” says Nora Hauptmann. “Rather, we are currently looking for further ways in which the platform can open up to the world of work. Because it is likely that not all of our students will end up at a traditional university. Many will also find their way into training through an internship.” Kiron would also like to support its students here, and for this purpose the university is working with the job platform Work Here .
All that's missing is a campus
Now the only thing missing from Kiron Open Higher Education is its own campus. The team is currently looking for a suitable location in the greater Berlin area. This should not look like a classic university campus, but rather like a shared learning space. Where students form study groups, use PCs and the Internet and can exchange ideas with each other. Although Kiron was created as a solution to a problem in the current refugee crisis, it is intended to develop far beyond this. “We believe that unfortunately there will always be people on the run in the future and will therefore need a flexible education system,” says Nora Hauptmann. And as long as that is the case, Kiron wants to continue teaching.
If you would like to support Kiron University, you can do so here.
Nora Hauptmann
Head of NGO Relations at Kiron University
