DAFI Annual Report 2019 Refugee students in higher education DAFI Annual Report 2019 Refugee students in higher education This document is for general distribution. All rights reserved. Reproductions and translations are authorized, except for commercial purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. © United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2020. Cover photo: © UNHCR / Antoine Tardy In collaboration with This work is a product of the staff of the UNHCR with external partner contributions. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of UNHCR or the governments it represents. The Global Refugee Forum 41 Hina Shikhani, refugee co-sponsor on Solutions Table of Felix Sesay, refugee co-sponsor on Education Events in Refugee Higher Education 48 Contents The Other 1%: Refugee Students in Higher Education Conference Tertiary Refugee Student Network Foreword 8 Launch of the Global Academic Interdisciplinary Network Abbreviations 9 Third Country Education Pathways Escol and Everline, DAFI scholars at UNESCO Qualifications Passport Kyambogo University in Kampala, Uganda UN Volunteers Project Expansion Executive Summary 12 Mikaelou, DAFI alumni, UN Volunteer and UN Women staff member in Senegal Manar, DAFI scholar at Lebanese University in Lebanon Higher Education and 58 DAFI Programme Fundamentals 16 Transition to Employment 20 DAFI Programme Highlights 2019 Antoinette, DAFI alumna in Rwanda Technical and Vocational Education and Training Operational Context: the 22 Emilio, DAFI TVET scholar in Ecuador global displacement situation 25 Internships and Career Readiness 64 Refugee Education: the evolving policy, planning and financing environment Equal and Inclusive Access 68 Higher Education for Refugees: 15% enrolment by 2030 Daniel, DAFI alumni and Masters student at the 32 University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom DAFI Programme Regional Summaries Sub-Saharan Africa Academic Performance 78 Middle East and North Africa Student Support 80 Walaa, DAFI scholar at Lebanese University in Lebanon Arnaldo, DAFI scholar in Ecuador Asia and the Pacific Europe Fields of Study 82 The Americas Esther, DAFI scholar at Makerere University, Uganda Oscar, DAFI alumni in Ecuador New DAFI Programme Countries 42 Community Engagement 88 Liberia 123 Malawi 124 DAFI Clubs 90 Mali 125 Alumni Networks 92 Mauritania 126 Mexico 127 Innovation for Higher Education 94 Morocco 128 Mozambique 129 Funding and Work with Partners 96 Niger 130 Core Funding Partners Nigeria 131 Management and Implementation Pakistan 132 Salam, DAFI alumna in Jordan Russian Federation 133 DAFI Programme Partners Rwanda 134 Country Factsheets 104 Senegal 135 Afghanistan 105 Somalia 136 Algeria 106 South Africa 137 Azerbaijan 107 South Sudan 138 Botswana | Namibia 108 Sudan 139 Burundi 109 Syrian Arab Republic (Syria) 140 Cameroon 110 Tajikistan 141 Chad 111 United Republic of Tanzania (Tanzania) 142 Ecuador 112 Turkey 143 Arab Republic of Egypt (Egypt) 113 Uganda 144 Ethiopia 114 Ukraine 145 Ghana 115 Yemen 146 India 116 Zambia 147 Republic of Iraq (Iraq) 117 Zimbabwe 149 Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran) 118 Countries supported from West Africa Regional Office 150 Jordan 119 (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, and Togo) Kenya 120 Kyrgyzstan 121 Endnotes 151 Lebanon 122 4 DAFI 2019 Annual Report 5 GERMANY. Refugee student delegation holds a two-day workshop to set up a new Tertiary Refugee Student Network © UNHCR/ANTOINE TARDY Foreword Abbreviations By Hina Shikhani and Felix Sesay, Refugee Co-sponsors to the Global Refugee Forum In the face of displacement and suffering, the to integrate our personal insights into this truly global BMZ German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development only future there is for us all is a shared future. As conversation. We left the Forum with a renewed Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework refugees, we face two journeys, one leading to hope, sense of optimism and resolve. CRRF the other leading to despair. With access to higher CLCC Connected Learning In Crisis Consortium education, we have always thrived on the route of In the end, education must become reality for all hope. Our chance to access tertiary education has refugees, not a slogan; for every refugee deserves DAAD German Academic Exchange Service not just been a dream come true but also a great feat quality education. For most refugee youth, their DAFI Albert Einstein German Academic Initiative in discovering our individual and collective potential. avowed goal is self-reliance. Our interaction with other refugee fellows made us realize not just Thus far, we have come to believe that we can affect GCR Global Compact on Refugees great change in our society if given the opportunity to our common challenges, but rather the resilience, access quality education, speak out and act on behalf optimism, and dedication towards a bright future that GPE Global Partnership for Education we share. of fellow refugees. GRF Global Refugee Forum Living as refugees, we have experienced enormous In June 2019, we were privileged to participate HOPES Higher and Further Education Opportunities and Perspectives for Syrians in a major international conference entitled ‘The challenges in our educational journeys, but have Other 1%’ held in Berlin, Germany where we raised never let the refugee label restrict our capabilities IGAD Intergovernmental Authority on Development our voices in support of refugee education. The and potential. We are enthusiastic to put forward the IOM International Organization for Migration conference bestowed on us the pride to promote positive potential of refugees to contribute towards helping and supporting our refugee community. Also, refugee self-reliance by advocating for greater MENA Middle East and North Africa access to education. During this conference we also we aspire to inspire other refugees to get educated contributed to the formation of the Tertiary Refugee and become a beacon of change in the world. MoE Ministry of Education Student Network, which we are proud members of In all of this, we are grateful to the DAFI programme, MoHE Ministry of Higher Education today. Our inclusion in finding solutions to the refugee UNHCR and all other stakeholders for believing in us, education crisis has been a great motivation for us our potentials and all we stand for. NGO Non-Governmental Organization to strive hard in restoring hope to the millions of OCHA Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs refugees without access to education. SDG Sustainable Development Goal In December, we were honored as young refugee advocates to participate in an unprecedented event, “We are not a threat and STEM Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics the Global Refugee Forum. The Forum provided us the opportunity to serve as refugee co-sponsors for neither vulnerable, but great TVET Technical and Vocational Education and Training both Solutions and Education themes. Participating in players in the team. We’re UNFPA United Nations Population Fund the Forum was an exciting and meaningful moment not a burden, but a shared for us because we believed that our voices could UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees represent those million voices that were waiting to be responsibility. Don’t pity us! In UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund heard, understood and acted upon. Indeed, we were fact, trust in our potential and amazed by the solidarity and prospects for progress see us soar higher than ever.” UNESCO United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization as we witnessed the numerous pledges for refugees. Both of us experienced powerful and enlightening Hina Shikhani WFP World Food Programme discussions, formed new relationships and were able Global Refugee Forum co-sponsor, Solutions 8 DAFI 2019 Annual Report 9 Escol and Everline DAFI SCHOLARS AT KYAMBOGO UNIVERSITY IN UGANDA Escol is a third-year student in oil and gas production Everline was born in South Sudan. In 2014, war broke at Kyambogo University, in Kampala, Uganda, on a out again and her family fled to the Morobi settlement DAFI scholarship. Everline is a third-year student in in Uganda. Everline loved school, but her family did accounting and finance, also at Kyambogo University. not support her to continue studying past secondary Escol and Everline, who are friends, are from South school. Everline says, ‘I lost hope. But I was still Sudan along with the other nine DAFI students who determined to be the first girl in my family to reach attend Kyambogo University. university, so I applied for the DAFI scholarship and was accepted’. On choosing her major, Everline says, Escol was born in what is today South Sudan and ‘My aunt was an accountant. She inspired me. I would is the eldest of five children. He fled to Uganda in go to her office, watch her go through her books 2015 when the war broke out. Having completed and use the computer. I felt like it was a good job, a his secondary education in 2013, Escol applied for good career to pursue. I was very good in commerce, university even though he did not have the money accounting and economics. That is why I picked to actually enrol. His mother struggled to support accounting and finance as my major. My message is him and a lecturer at school loaned him some funds, the following: which he later repaid. Escol was accepted into the DAFI programme during the second semester of his first year and says, ‘Being accepted into DAFI changed my life; it was a turning point for me. I have PLEASE DO SUPPORT GIRLS’ always found peace in the classroom, ever since I EDUCATION BY ALL MEANS. was a child. When I’d see someone with a book, it would make me feel happy and want to be around ANY COMMUNITY GROWS them, to follow their example’. FROM EDUCATING THEIR GIRLS AND WOMEN. WE ARE ‘Outside of the classroom’, he says, ‘there are some negative attitudes towards refugees. Just because HIGHLY CAPABLE. of the way I look, people can immediately tell that I am Sudanese.