OPINION

Making universities welcoming to refugees and those seeking asylum

This opinion piece is almost 2 years old

14 December 2022
by Gün Orgun

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Still time to sign up for conference in January

Delegates from 27 Universities across the UK will be meeting in Edinburgh on 19January to talk about refugees’ access to higher education.

Hosted by the University of Edinburgh, this fourth annual Universities of Sanctuary Conference will be a great opportunity for delegates to form connections, attend a wide variety of workshops and discuss the future of this developing network.

We look forward to welcoming the already-registered colleagues from the universities across the UK, as well as third sector and refugee-led organisations and sanctuary students.

Universities of Sanctuary is an initiative of City of Sanctuary, a UK wide refugee sector organisation for whom I am Scotland and Northern Ireland coordinator.

It is my pleasure in this role to work with colleagues in the higher and further education sectors, as well as Scotland’s Community of Access and Participation Practitioners (SCAPP) with the objective of making Scottish universities more actively welcoming of refugees and people seeking asylum.

Our work includes developing resources, delivering workshops and training sessions as well as an annual conference with partners, and more widely, encouraging networks across institutions with the aim of improving refugees’ access to higher education in the UK.

Higher education institutions can also apply for the Universities of Sanctuary Award, a self-assessment and development tool through which universities can consolidate their support for refugees – from scholarship provision and research and teaching on forced migration, to student activism and building links with local refugee groups.

This work on improving access has had an enthusiastic groundswell of support – there are currently 28 Universities across the UK, including Edinburgh, St Andrews, Glasgow and Dundee in Scotland. Many more are going through the award process, and engaging with this committed network of professionals. All have been welcoming refugee and asylum seeking students to campus on sanctuary scholarships.

This area of focus of course is not new to Scotland – Scottish Government’s New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy has a focus on access to education.

Please get in touch with me on gun@cityofsanctuary.org, or my colleague Maryam Taher, who coordinates Universities of Sanctuary across the UK at maryam@cityofsanctuary.org.

Have look at the Eventbrite page for information and to register for the Universities of Sanctuary Conference by 19 December.

You can also join a UK-wide conversation on refugees’ access to higher education by registering to join the Sanctuary JiscMail group at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=SANCTUARY.

I look forward to working together!

Gün Orgun is the coordinator for Scotland and Northern Ireland for City of Sanctuary UK, a refugee sector charity which supports a UK-wide network of grass-roots groups, as well as ‘sanctuary awards’ – with the aim of promoting a culture of active welcome for refugees and people seeking asylum in communities and organisations.