Challenges and opportunities for refugee students in the European Higher Education Sector
24.06.2021
On 1st July from 10 a.m. till 12 p.m. the task force “Enabling refugees” of Action Line 2 would like to invite all Arqus universities’ members to its first of this year’s two webinars on “Challenges and opportunities for refugee students in the European Higher Education Sector – from best practices to institutional strategies”.
Access to higher education is still marked by unequal possibilities. Only 3% of refugee youth participate in tertiary education, whereby the number of unreported cases is suspected to be much higher. (see: UNHCR report “Coming Together For Refugee Education. Education Report 2020”).
It is not only this precarious number of the UNHCR that reminds us that access to higher education is still marked by unequal possibilities and hurdles that are too difficult to overcome. Even people with years of work experience in their home countries, for example as doctors, teachers or lawyers, face battles to have their professional degrees recognized throughout Europe and are often forced to work below their educational level. Others who have fled their countries need to deal with the recognition of their previous educational attainments. It becomes especially difficult if the documentary evidence of their qualifications has been lost as a result of their flight. So, interruptions in the educational biography, lost documentation, mental health and trauma, language barriers and bureaucratical challenges are only a few obstacles that keep persons with a refugee background from being fully integrated into the European Higher Education Systems.
The webinar aims to inspire dialogue and will be the first step to developing new ideas and strategies in order to dismantle barriers in tertiary education and to create a flexible model for admission which could also be adopted by other European institutions outside the Alliance.
The webinar will be run on Zoom, administered and moderated by Leipzig University.
Register until 12 pm CEST on 30th June, through the following link.
