This article focuses on student and refugee experiences of initiating and participating in Open Seminars at University West. There has been a polarization between volunteer work and official practice regarding previous research on efforts for refugees. This initiative is to be found in-between these models, since students are doing the Open Seminars within a strategic initiative on behalf of the University, yet on a voluntary basis and with no credits involved. There is a need for socialentrepreneurial action in many domains in society. Universities might play a keyrole as a bridging institution where these types of in-between initiatives and practices become both possible and important for democratic processes in general, and community involvement among students in higher education in particular. The experiences from the students and refugees, captured by focus group interviews, showed that the student-driven, campus-based Open Seminars created added valuein relation to topic-specific learning, deepened understanding of the literature and moderated stereotypical understandings. The seminars were also meaningful for students as well as asylum-seeking refugees. Student-driven Open Seminars become important social entrepreneurial actions helping universities to function as anchor institutions in their region addressing the refugee situation in Sweden.