Abstract
Since the academic year 2017–2018, the Tilburg University Language Center has been offering an academic pre-Bachelor’s programme for refugee students. This year-long educational programme prepares high-potential refugees for a Dutch- or English-taught Bachelor’s programme at a university. In addition, students prepare for the Dutch Civic Integration Exams. A special part of the pre-Bachelor’s programme is an internship at a company in the Brabant region. This increases the refugees’ chances on the labour market during and after their studies. In this report, the target group and structure of the programme, the way in which the project is financed, and the experiences of the first pilot year are described. The authors also advocate the importance of an academic language and transition year, explain why this task is best assigned to a university language centre, and make recommendations for institutions that want to set up such a language and transition year themselves.
About the authors
Tjits Roselaar has a degree in linguistics with a specialisation in Arabic and Dutch as a second language. She has many years of experience in teaching and developing courses in Dutch as a second language. From 2010 to 2013 she was Director of the International Association for Dutch studies (IVN) and has been the Director of the Tilburg University Language Center as of 2013. She participates in several national and international networks in the field of language education and educational management.
Patty van Bielder studied linguistics and has a degree in second language acquisition. After her graduation, she worked as a teacher of Dutch as a second language and academic Dutch courses at Tilburg University Language Center. As of 2013, she coordinates the Dutch department of this Language Center. She currently combines this function with the coordination of the pre-Bachelor’s programme for refugees.
References
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© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
