Pathways to Research for University Students

The program is for University of Bonn students on bachelor’s, master’s, Magister or state examination degree programs. Students must meet the following participation criteria:

• Refugee and/or migration background*
• Good to very good grades on your degree program or, for students who are applying for funding for their first semester of studies, a good to very good “Abitur” grade
• German or English at B2/C1 level depending on the requirements for the relevant degree program
• Particular social or cultural engagement an advantage

Students do not have to be enrolled at the University of Bonn yet at the time they apply. However, they will not be able to start receiving funding under the Pathways to Research program unless they are enrolled at the University of Bonn. 

* “With a migration background” means either that the person concerned was not themselves born with German citizenship or that their parents were not born with German citizenship. Student applications with migration background must have obtained their “Abitur” in Germany in order to be eligible to apply for the program. For students with a refugee background, it is irrelevant whether the higher education entrance qualification was obtained in Germany or abroad. 

Students on the ERASMUS Program are not eligible for this program.

Required application documents: 

• Letter of motivation (max. one page, motivation for application; if applicable information about social / cultural engagement; if applicable voluntary information about hardship case such as, for example single parent, chronic illness, disability, caring duties)
• Letter of recommendation from a lecturer or degree program manager at the University of Bonn; students who are submitting an application for the first semester of their degree program or who are new to the University of Bonn may instead submit a letter of recommendation from a school teacher or a lecturer at another university.
• Transcrips of Records from the last semester 
• Certificate of enrollment from the University of Bonn (If you are not enrolled at the University of Bonn at the time of application, please provide the enrollment certificate as soon as possible to be admitted to the program.)
• Signed approval of data protection (please sign the German or English paragraph)
• CV (tabular and max. two pages) 

If you have a refugee background, please send us in addition the following documents:

• ID scan which shows your current residential permit (irrelevant sections may be censored)

If you have a migration background, please send us in addition the following documents:

• German school-leaving certificate
• Scan of your birth certificate if you were born outside Germany or scan of the birth certificate of your parents if you were born in Germany. 

If you have concerns, reservations or problems concerning the provision of documents, please contact Daina Hues by phone or email to discuss the next steps. 

The documents can be written in German or English. Please send the documents, if possible in PDF or JPG format, to daina.hues@uni-bonn.de

Note: Your letters of motivation and recommendation should be addressed as follows: Daina Hues, Projektmanagerin, Stabsstelle Chancengerechtigkeit und Diversität, Dechenstraße 3-11, 53115 Bonn.