Call for participants: Workshop on Experiences in Providing Access to HE for Refugees & Asylum Seekers
REIs is organising a workshop to develop common learning on issues encountered by universities in providing access to higher education for refugees and asylum seekers in Europe. Papers from students of refugee backgrounds, university educators and administrators, and policy makers at all levels are particularly welcome.
Refugee Education Initiatives (REIs) Workshop
Call for participants
Exploring European Experiences in Providing Higher Education for Refugees and Asylum Seekers
A workshop at Central European University, Budapest, on 19 and 20 March 2020.
Deadline for abstracts: 9 December 2019.
The Erasmus+ Refugee Education Initiatives (REIs) consortium addresses inequality in access to higher education and does so through three types of activity, all centred on fostering inclusion of people of refugee status or who are forced migrants into European higher education institutions:
Education programs designed to develop academic and language skills to prepare students for university entry
Admissions policies and criteria as they apply to people of refugee status and asylum seekers, with a particular emphasis on how previous qualifications and learning are assessed
Development of shared learning on inclusive pedagogic and administrative practices to foster inclusion, which would benefit not only refugees, but also other under-served people.
These three different activities are connected by a common focus on the need for a pro-active inclusionary approach to fostering access by refugees to higher education in Europe. This workshop will bring together different stakeholders from higher education institutions (teachers, administrators, managers), students with refugee backgrounds, policy makers from national and European levels, grassroots organisations and civil society, to discuss current issues that impede refugee access to higher education in Europe and how this may be addressed.
This workshop builds on a workshop held last spring which brought together a range of actors to discuss similar issues.
Interested contributors should send short expressions of interest (no more than a page) describing their work in the area of fostering inclusion to higher education for refugees and/or asylum seekers and what they hope to contribute to and gain from the workshop. Contributors may also wish to reflect on the key questions of the workshop listed below. The organisers welcome applications from individuals working with other marginalised groups accessing higher education in Europe (for example, Roma or other minority groups) in the strong belief that comparative work in this area may contribute to the development of innovative learning.
The key questions that the workshop hopes to engage are as follows:
What are good, and bad practices in assessing and recognising the learning and previous qualifications of refugees and asylum seekers? What are the approaches of universities, policy makers and civil society in this area? How well are the provisions of the Lisbon Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications held by Refugees and Displaced Persons implemented at national or university level?
What types of preparatory programs and courses may be required to assist refugees and asylum seekers access higher education? What are the gaps in current provisions (e.g. expert knowledge on national education systems and how to apply? Academic language provision? Academic knowledge provision?). Is there a role in national education systems for foundation or preparatory programs? Can there be a remedy for individuals who have finished most but not all of their studies (other than returning to first year university or secondary school)?
Where are there gaps in funding and how may these be addressed? Do different states provide higher education scholarships?
Do restrictions on mobility of refugees and uncertainty over their fee-paying status (as EU citizens or third country nationals) impact on access to higher education?
Expressions of interest, comprising of a short abstract outlining previous experience in the field and abstract of a presentation, may be sent to Prem Kumar Rajaram (rajaramp@ceu.edu) by 9 December 2019. Abstracts should connect to one of the four key questions of the conference outlined above, or may point to other questions and issues not elaborated here but connected to the themes of the workshop.