Elderly and experienced adults – SeniorConsultants – support international students during their stay in Germany while they study at Ulm University.  This is the basic idea of ASSIST. The word is the short form of Active Partnership and Support of SeniorConsultants for International Students.

ASSIST was founded based upon an initiative of the English study courses Advanced Materials, Communications Technology and Finance as well as the Centre for General Scientific Continuing Education of Ulm University, shortly ZAWiW, in the context of a pilote phase in winter semester 2006/07. Since the start of the winter semester 2008/09 also the study course Energy Science and Technology is added to ASSIST and students of the German University of Cairo are addressed via the International Office. Since the start of the winter semester 2009/10 also the molecular medicine master students were included.

The project got a start-up financing from January to November 2008, see support. Currently it is in a period of consolidation supported by Ulm University (December 2008 until December 2009). Since 2010 the group of SeniorConsultants is responsible for the continuation of ASSIST, ZAWiW advises them until December 2010.

Within ASSIST intercultural and intergenerational bridges are built. Practically the project's output is an exchange of experiences and competences between students and SeniorConsultants. Examples: at common parties, by learning the German language, on excursions. Contacts are possible in groups or individually.