Skip to main content.
OSUN Menu
Education sub-menu
Education
OSUN Courses
Faculty
Graduate Programs
Certificate Programs
Mobility
Teaching
Birkbeck Summer School
Center for Liberal Arts and Sciences Pedagogy (CLASP)
Developing Teaching Professionals
Global History Lab
Global Teaching Fellowship Program
GLOBALED
Curricula
CORUSUS
Economic Democracy Initiative
Experimental Humanities Collaborative Network
Global Studies
Hannah Arendt Humanities Network
Human Rights Program
Liberal Arts and Sciences Collaborative
Policy Labs
Professional Development Program for University Administrators
Public Health and Human Rights
Strengthening the Core
Transnational Feminism, Solidarity, and Social Justice
Research sub-menu
Research
Research Projects
The Democracy Institute
Economic Democracy Initiative
Engaged Scholarship
GEOHUB
Global Institute of Advanced Study
Research Creation Initiative
Senior Projects
Fellowships
Chatham House Academy Fellowships
Global Scholars Academy
Modular Doctoral Program
Past Projects
Global Observatory on Academic Freedom
Open Society Research Platform
Access sub-menu
Access
Teacher Education
Enhanced Network Teacher Education Capacity
Hubs for Connected Learning Initiatives
Education Pathways
Collaborative for Liberal Education for Adolescents
Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison
Hubs for Connected Learning Initiatives
Microcollege for Just Community Leadership
OLIve
Roma Equity in Higher Education
The Socrates Project
Civic sub-menu
Civic Engagement
Student Engagement
Get Engaged Conference
Global Commons
Global Debate Network
Global Engagement Fellows
Online Arts Workshop
Student-Led Initiatives
Student Life Initiatives Project (SLIP)
Engaged Learning
Certificate in Civic Engagement
Community Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences
Engaged Scholarship
Engaged Senior Projects
OSUN Science Shop
Solve Climate by 2030
Academic Freedom sub-menu
Academic Freedom
Initiatives
AltLiberalArts
Invisible University for Ukraine
Smolny Beyond Borders
Threatened Scholars Integration Initiavitve
Institutional Partners
American University of Afghanistan
Parami University
News sub-menu
News + Opportunities
Newsroom
Current News
News Archive
Events
Current Events
Events Archive
Opportunities
For Students
For Faculty
Archive
Student Fellows and Ambassadors
Newsletter
Resources sub-menu
Resources
OSUN Resources
Academic Technology Guides
Blended Learning Toolkit
Digital Collection
Digital Case Studies
Student-Produced Videos
The Struggle for Voting Rights at Colleges
About sub-menu
About
About OSUN
Our Vision
Who We Are
What We Do
Member Institutions
Themes
Annual Report
Branding
Search
Search
News & Events Menu
News & Events Menu
Newsroom
Current News
News Archive
Events
Current Events
Events Archive
Opportunities
Current Opportunities
Opportunities Archive
OSUN News
View all news
Durable and Sustainable: Civil Society and the Expansion of Higher Education Solutions for Refugee Youth
Students in OSUN's Refugee Higher Education Access program in Kenya. Photo by Moris Albert.
The UNHCR’s
Global Taskforce on Third Country Education Pathways
, co-chaired by OSUN’s
Hubs for Connected Learning Initiatives
project, recently held a
workshop
exploring the funding models used by Canada, Mexico, and Japan to provide pathways to higher education for refugee students. Models ranged from higher education institutional sponsorships to private sector financing and civil society efforts to bridge gaps between universities and government support. Each of the panelists pointed out how civil society provided the necessary means of connecting educational institutions to government assistance for displaced students.
Michelle Manks
, Senior Manager of Durable Solutions for Refugees at World University Service of Canada (WUSC), discussed efforts by her nonprofit organization to secure sustainable funding for refugee student initiatives on campuses throughout Canada, in addition to private and community-based sponsorships. She explained how campuses adopt a range of unique models to fundraise, often through tuition waivers, student levies, and athletic scholarships. Putting forward stories demonstrating the positive impact students have on their communities is helpful in fundraising, as is having partners co-running initiatives to ensure greater longevity and sustainability, she said.
Alvaro Zúniga
, Program Director at nonprofit Proyecto Habesha, described how Mexican civil society can be instrumental in helping nonprofits grow to scale as they work to provide educational pathways for refugee students. He explained that while working with Mexican authorities to gain support for refugee students accessing education, the government was quite delayed in its response. However, civil society helped programs grow gradually by building on smaller successes so they could prove to government agencies that they were a national asset worth supporting with visa and resettlement processes.
Paul Hastings
, president and CEO of the nonprofit Japan ICU Fund for Syrian Scholars Initiative, described a similar government hesitancy to support the education resettlement of Syrian refugees in Japan. Nonprofits and international organizations eventually connected his organization with the Ministry of Justice and Affairs and proceeded to convince the ministry to unofficially agree to not send refugee students back to Syria upon graduation. There has also been a gradual shift to formally include non-Syrian refugee students in such programs. In addition, Hastings reported a recent growth in Japanese donors’ support for refugee education.
These highly diverse case studies showed that across the globe, civil society and NGOs are invaluable in bridging the gap between universities and governmental bodies, coaxing them to support refugee student education in long term, sustainable ways.
Post Date:
03-15-2022