Barriers and enablers to higher and further education for refugees

Divya Jose (Refugee Education UK), Corinne Squire (University of Bristol) and Mir Abdullah Miri (University of Bath)

The UNHCR has estimated that only 7% of refugees have access to higher education, compared to 42% for non-refugees. 

A report from the University of Bristol, published earlier this year, identified a range of reasons why this was the case in the UK, including a hostile political environment, financial constraints, lack of information and coordination, and inflexibility over non-UK qualifications. 

Refugee Education UK (REUK) works to overcome these barriers. It provides information and support for refugees seeking to access higher and further education in the UK, including signposting scholarships. 

Divya Jose, Youth Advocacy Manager at REUK, will discuss these practical interventions with one of the Bristol report’s authors, Corinne Squire. They will each talk about their work and the conclusions from it, before opening up the discussion to a panel of stakeholders. 

Participants will then have the opportunity to discuss these conclusions in small groups, to talk about their experiences and to share their knowledge, and to build on these to develop practical proposals for supporting refugees to access higher and further education. 

• Divya Jose (Refugee Education UK) is a Youth Advocacy Manager. She provides research and advocacy support for REUK’s projects, and has a particular interest in forced migration, women and children in conflict, and restorative justice. 
• Corinne Squire (University of Bristol) is a Chair in Global Inequalities and leads the Open Learning Initiative, or OLIve, a national online programme, supporting people from refugee backgrounds who want to move into higher education. 
• Mir Abdullah Miri (University of Bath) is a refugee scholar with a PhD in English Language Teaching, now pursuing a second PhD in Refugee Education at the University of Bath, where he is also a lecturer in the Department of Education. His extensive research and advocacy are dedicated to improving educational access and equity for refugees, migrants and people in crisis and challenging contexts.