INTERACTION. The University of Gothenburg is hiring a refugee coordinator and will offer 80 trainee positions for refugees. And there is more to come, says Pro-Vice-Chancellor Helena Lindholm.
The University of Gothenburg’s management, staff and students are showing a strong willingness to support the many refugees who are arriving in Sweden from Syria and other countries. Eighty trainee positions for refugees are currently being created at various departments and faculties.
‘The response has been overwhelming. It’s really exciting and shows that the engagement we’ve seen this whole autumn is persisting – that people are serious about making a difference,’ says Pro-Vice-Chancellor Helena Lindholm.
The University of Gothenburg is also hiring a refugee coordinator who will be tasked to coordinate the University’s activities related to the refugee situation. It is also about ensuring that the efforts correspond to society’s needs and to see in which ways the trainees are enabled to contribute positively to the University.
‘We need to become better at receiving the refugees and responding to the new needs in Swedish society. That’s why we want to improve our coordination, because we can offer knowledge, study programmes and research of high relevance,’ says Lindholm.
Hopefully, the University of Gothenburg will soon offer language training in Swedish, help out with evaluating newly arrived refugee students and bring attention to researchers and research areas of relevance to the refugee situation.
‘We’re also looking into the possibility of providing education to students in the refugee camps outside Syria, in cooperation with Sida*,’ says Lindholm.
The project with trainee positions is a collaboration between the University of Gothenburg and Arbetsförmedlingen.
* Sida is a government agency working on behalf of the Swedish parliament and government, with the mission to reduce poverty in the world.
