Higher Education and Refugees Forum

18 January 2023, 09:00–17:00
Playfair Library Hall, The University of Edinburgh
Invite-only

How can UK universities respond in a time of crisis?

Over 100 million people across the world are now forcibly displaced from their homes. Only five per cent of refugees have access to higher education, compared with a global average of thirty-nine per cent. There is much work to do.

The response by UK higher education to recent humanitarian crises in Afghanistan and Ukraine highlights the positive impact that universities can have in addressing challenges created by humanitarian emergencies, providing access to learning and ensuring lives can be rebuilt.

The UK higher education sector has a tradition of providing a place of sanctuary for those requiring protection. This special forum will create a vision for how UK universities can play a leading role in supporting the global 15by30 goal – for fifteen per cent of young refugees to have access to higher education by 2030.

This participatory forum will engage and connect universities and key stakeholders across the United Kingdom in addressing the urgent need to support refugees and those forcibly displaced across the world. It will highlight practical steps for creating higher education opportunities for refugees, identify what more needs to be done in UK higher education to support the delivery of 15by30 and set out a role for UK higher education in responding to this international crisis.

Speakers will include leaders from the UNHCR, UK universities and refugees currently accessing higher education.

Learn and share best-practice guidance in delivering strategic responses to the current refugee crisis within and beyond the UK

Develop a new vision for the advocacy and civic role of the UK higher education sector in contributing to the UNHCR goal and strategic response to the refugee crisis

Identify where the sector’s unique strengths and assets are in relation to supporting refugees and where the gaps are to inform future areas of focus