By Brendan O'Malley. Three out of four higher education institutions in Germany have applied to take part in a government-funded programme to integrate refugees into their higher education courses. Read more...
14 mars 2016
14 mars 2016
Widening access to higher education for Syrian refugees
By Reva Dhingra. It was just over three years ago that Basel Al Noserat, a 25-year-old from southern Syria, arrived in Za’atri refugee camp. The civil war engulfing his home country had forced his family to seek safe haven in neighbouring Jordan, where they were placed in the dusty camp that has since become Jordan’s fourth-largest population centre. Read more...
14 mars 2016
Higher education has key role in integrating refugees
By Leon Cremonini. “The Syrian conflict is having a devastating and lasting impact on Syria and across the region…”. Since the start of the conflict we got sadly accustomed to this refrain in virtually all policy initiatives and pieces of research addressing the Syrian crisis. Yet, today the issue is far from regional. Europe has not witnessed population shifts of this scale since World War II. Read more...
14 mars 2016
Beyond the Syrian refugee crisis
By Hans de Wit. The Syrian refugee crisis has already been going on for a year and its end is not yet in sight: the war goes on and the economic, social, and political situation in the country itself and in neighbouring countries is worsening. The numbers of refugees arriving in Europe daily is still high and resistance is increasing. Read more...
14 mars 2016
Access to higher education is key in the integration of Syrian refugees
By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. This week in a Special Report on higher education for refugees, Leon Cremonini says that integration of Syrian refugees in host communities is essential because they are there for the long term – and higher education is necessary to ensure integration. Then Reva Dhingra highlights some of the serious hurdles faced by refugees in accessing higher education and the challenges of their situation after graduation, while Simon Morris-Lange and Florinda Brands say German universities are opening their doors to refugees but only a handful can be found in lecture halls because of barriers to access for asylum seekers.
The refugee theme continues in World Blog, with Hans de Wit suggesting that investing in higher education in the developing world, starting with the countries neighbouring Syria, would be a good long-term strategy for the developed world to address future illegal immigration problems at their root.
In Commentary, Peter McGrath reports that improving communication was the key concept that emerged from a recent conference of science academies from around the world, focused on science advice. Kevin Hylton says higher education in the UK has a significant problem with its colonial past, racial discrimination and their related outcomes and it is time to tackle these issues in British universities.
In a potential violation of Academic Freedom, Nick Holdsworth writes that a leading Russian historian is facing calls for a criminal investigation after defending his PhD thesis on a Red Army general who turned traitor against Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in the latter stages of World War II.
In Features, Sharon Dell looks at the thorny issues of university autonomy and transformation in South Africa, which came under scrutiny during public hearings into the Higher Education Amendment Bill.
And in a second Special Report, Munyaradzi Makoni covers the Next Einstein Forum’s Global Gathering 2016, a congress held in Senegal last week that is the first in a series that will showcase Africa’s top emerging scientists and connect them across the continent and the world. Read more...
14 mars 2016
No time to lose: from reception to integration of asylum migrants - 4
By focusing simultaneously on housing, language acquisition, training and work, public authorities will minimise the amount of valuable time lost in integrating asylum migrants.
In 2015, the public debate was dominated by moving images of migrants making their way to Europe and by the concerned reactions of European citizens to the asylum issue. Attention is currently focused mainly on the problems relating to the local reception of new groups of asylum seekers. At the same time, however, policymakers face a second fundamental challenge, which is the question of how to facilitate the integration of asylum seekers who have been granted a residence permit into Dutch society. This policy brief focuses on this category of asylum seekers, who are referred to as permit holders. More...
13 mars 2016
The refugee crisis: a challenge but also an opportunity for improving policies to integrate immigrants
By Gabor Fulop. The ongoing refugee crisis in Europe has particularly affected the Netherlands. Asylum requests surged in 2015 to nearly 60 000 (Panel A), more than three times the yearly average of 2010-14. This is a significant challenge for the authorities, who need to provide decent housing and help these people finding a job for the time they will stay in the Netherlands as refugees, which could be much longer than expected. Getting work is key for refugees to develop social contacts and economic independence, and acquiring new skills could be helpful for those refugees who eventually return to their own country. Therefore, good policies to facilitate the labour market integration for migrants are critical. More...
10 mars 2016
EU launches the Science4Refugees initiative
Science4Refugees is accessible to refugees and institutions through the EURAXESS - Researchers in Motion portal, a pan-European initiative providing access to a complete range of information and support services to researchers wishing to find jobs and pursue their research careers in Europe. More...
10 mars 2016
Erasmus+ helping refugees through
Supporting Member States' efforts to integrate refugees in Europe's education systems and ensure their skills development is an urgent task in the light of the current migration crisis.
Many initiatives are already taking place in EU countries. The European Commission can bring added value by sharing these initiatives and by offering support through its programmes. More...
10 mars 2016
Refugees Welcome Map
With the Refugees Welcome Map campaign, EUA aims to showcase and document the commitment of higher education institutions and organisations in supporting refugees. EUA is collecting data on their initiatives and activities via a brief survey and presenting them in this interactive map, which will be continuously updated. The campaign began in Europe but is open to institutions and organisations around the world. More...
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