We all benefit when everyone has access to tertiary education, but the inclusion of students and scholars displaced by conflict is lagging behind other groups. Commemorating World Refugee Day, the webinar hosted on Tuesday 22 June 2021, co-organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) shared university and student led initiatives that support inclusion of refugees in national education systems and on campus in solidarity #withrefugees to ensure no one is left behind.
This webinar helped to disseminate information on concrete ways universities and the general public can contribute to inclusive and equitable quality education opportunities for displaced students and scholars, through an open dialogue with experts from academia, and the non-profit sector.
Mr. Richard Towle, Deputy Director in New York of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), gave the opening remarks. Mr. Towle highlighted the new, even higher number of refugees that are being seen today globally, while pointing to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic as a factor that made refugee vulnerability more acute. Mr. Towle introduced UNHCR’s aim to have 15% of young refugees in higher education by 2030. He believes that participation in education is an essential element of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and ties in to the mantra of leaving no-one behind. However, he cautioned that there are many barriers to refugees seeking education, including tuition fees, the inability of some academic institutions to accept refugees, and language barriers. Despite this, Mr. Towle posed that the pandemic has provided as well an opportunity to advance our abilities to link global platforms and initiatives together during this move to remote working, learning, and educating.
Professor Dawn Freshwater, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Auckland, an institution of higher education in New Zealand serving as the UNAI SDG Hub for Goal 4: Quality Education, spoke about how her country was built on migration, and highlighted the 900 refugee students attending the University of Auckland. She discussed how education was the most effective way to lift people out of poverty, and that the right to education can help mobilize and inspire people to fight for other rights. But, she alerted, more must be done to address refugee exclusion from education. Professor Freshwater also drew attention to the importance of recognizing psychological and emotional barriers to education, which includes unconscious biases embedded in institutions, commitments to families and care that could hinder refugees’ ability to focus on education, the need for basic human rights, and the need for refugee students to feel welcomed into their new communities. She highlighted the importance of scholarships and partnerships with civil society in addressing these barriers.
Professor Arian Mack, Director of the New University in Exile Consortium and Professor of Psychology at The New School for Social Research, in the United States, stated that education is the basis for being able to live and flourish in a new land. She pointed to the use of remote learning and free online resources to make education more accessible. Professor Mack also emphasized the need for more financial support for any type refugees, both students and professors in exile. She argued that issues of academic freedom and censorship were only making barriers to education stronger, and questioned what would happen to these students when their fellowship or scholarship are depleted. Precisely costs was one of the challenges mentioned by Mr. Ben Webster, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Mosaik Education, in addition to language barriers and lack of understanding of available resources, difficulties accessing information and guidance, mental wellbeing, and access to technology. He stressed that the role of civil society was to fill the resource gap that is visible within the academic community.
Finally, Ms. Manuela Freitas, a Venezuelan national who is an Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative scholarship recipient and student at the University of the Americas - Puebla in Mexico, spoke candidly about her refugee experience, from leaving her native country to being unable to afford university tuition in Mexico when she wanted to pursue higher education. Thankfully, she applied for and received a specific scholarship that particulatly addresses the needs of refugees. Ms. Freitas underlined the critical importance of having some kind of support system of people who understand the situation acutely of being a refugee, and that being able to speak freely with people who understands the special circumstances and complexities of that situation, is what ultimately gave her the confidence to continue pursuing her education.