International Share conference in Bologna launches Manifesto to Mobilise Support for Higher Education Pathways
“Universities as Sponsors” conference, 12 March, 2022, Bologna
Strengthening and expanding higher education pathways to Europe for refugee students, is the ambition of the Manifesto launched at the occasion of the international conference on tertiary education pathways for refugees which took place at the University of Bologna on 10-11 March.
This project, initiated by ICMC Europe/The Share Network, Caritas Italiana, Consorzio Communitas, and the University of Bologna, and in collaboration with WUSC, Global Task Force on Third Country Education Pathways, builds on successful examples, such as the Italian UNICORE programme, the German DAAD Leadership for Syria and Africa and the Student Refugee Program (SRP) in Canada managed by WUSC. Participants and engaged stakeholders express their commitment to work towards common advocacy, strategies, and the design of operational frameworks to further expand and create higher education pathways for refugees in Europe.
Such commitment is all the more urgent given the current needs of Afghan refugees and the rapid escalation of the war in Ukraine, where to date about 3.7 million and already fled the country, and after a 2021 year marked by a continued increase in forced displacement, now exceeding 84 million. This unprecedented situation will require universities, civil society, and communities, to offer large-scale refugee scholarship and support to arriving students, to continue their education, and rebuild their lives and futures.
As shown during the conference, innovative multi-stakeholder responses, developed jointly by universities, civil society, local communities, and the private sector, can scale up still scarce higher education opportunities via scholarships, swift recognition of qualifications, and offering settlement and integration support, including early labour market integration. Ensuring grassroots engagement of students and wider local community engagement, as well as ensuring active refugee participation and private sector engagement can bring much-needed innovation, developing new partnerships in higher education programmes.
Our call to the European Parliament via the Manifesto is to sustainably support the humanitarian corridors for students with three concrete actions:
invest in staffs who select student corridor access application;
create funds for scholarships with the support also of the private sector;
involve the local communities in supporting the integration of students, especially when they have to leave universities and enter the job world.
The Bologna conference is only the first of a series of initiatives that will take the Manifesto across Europe.
“We should not move from one crisis to another but invest in long-term programmes that can be developed across all European countries”