PROFIN at Jacobs

Integration Through Linking Living and Learning

Welcome to PROFIN at Jacobs University! PROFIN (or Programm zur Förderung der Integration ausländischer Studierender) is a program initiated by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) that aims to better integrate international students at German universities. Under the umbrella of PROFIN, several model projects are brought together that offer different approaches to this integration.

Jacobs University Bremen has become a part of the PROFIN with its comprehensive project "Integration durch das Verknüpfen von Lernen und Leben" or "Integration through linking living and learning". The project is a joint initiative of the following offices:

• The Office for Academic Affairs and International Programs [Contact us],
• The Office for Campus Activities and Intercultural Affairs [Contact us],
• The Career Service Center [Contact us]

The initiative also receives support from the Undergraduate Student Government.

PROFIN at Jacobs University encompasses three major project fields:

• Intercultural exchange on campus
• the linking of Jacobs’ campus with German society
• integration of students to German professional life.

On campus, students can profit from both academic offers, such as the special course “German Politics and Culture”, and extra-curricular activities such as German movie nights. In order to allow students to explore their host country and enjoy German culture or learn about its history, a variety of excursions and short trips are offered with the support of PROFIN.

The excursion program targets first the closer region, with trips to museums, the theatre or sites around Bremen, second wider Northern Germany, including among others the cities of Hamburg and Lübeck, and third Germany as a whole. Different regions and cities throughout Germany, for example the Ruhrgebiet or the city of Berlin, can be visited on weekend trips, which are organized either by German language instructors or German students, who with the help of PROFIN get the chance to invite foreign students to their home city.

Special emphasis is also given to the German language program at Jacobs University that allows students to learn the German language in courses for all the different levels of prior knowledge that they might bring with them.