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Pilot project for refugee access to higher education in Australia

This week marks the official launch of the Refugee Student Settlement Pathway by Refugee Education Australia. In the first phase of this pilot project, 20 scholarships will be awarded to refugees selected from applicants in Malaysia, India and Thailand.


The RSSP will provide students with the opportunity to study in fields such as nursing, civil engineering, technology, and business, with support from local campus support groups. Participants will arrive on permanent humanitarian visas, giving them access to domestic student places and HECS, and helping them to rebuild their lives and contribute to the Australian workforce.


I wrote about this pilot project in my article published last July, which has now been approved by the Australian Government and will be implemented in 2025.

Veronika Durin-Hornyik, PhD

Pathways to climate careers for displaced women in Australia

I attended the launch of a pioneering programme yesterday at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, where I’m a visiting fellow researching higher education in the context of forced migration.

JEINA (Justice Inclusion Access) is a pilot project created at UNSW last July, which aims to create an inclusive and connected ecosystem of support for UNSW women students from forced migration backgrounds. When fully implemented, JEINA will be the first programme of its kind in an Australian university.  

To this end, a first partnership was officially launched yesterday between JEINA and Trailblazer for Recycling and Clean Energy to provide pathways to climate careers through scholarships and empowerment initiatives – Enterprise Academic, Higher Degree Research Programme and Work Integrated Learning (WIL) – specifically for women from forced migration backgrounds. These opportunities are designed to provide pathways to leadership, research and practical experience in the climate sector.

Learn more about this event on LinkedIn.

Veronika Durin-Hornyik, PhD

Refugee access to higher education in Australia

Today is World Refugee Day which falls each year on 20 June to honour refugees around the globe. It was held for the first time on 20 June 2001, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. This rights-based instrument is a cornerstone of international refugee protection and constitutes the legal basis for the access of refugees to education under Article 22.

Since 1998, Refugee Week is held every year around World Refugee Day. Founded in the United Kingdom, many countries joined this growing international movement in 2023 to raise awareness of refugees and asylum seekers through a program of arts, cultural, sports and educational events.

Refugee Week Australia dates back to the 1980s. This year, it hosts engaging discussions on refugees’ access to higher education.  Hon. Prof. Verity Firth, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Social Justice and Inclusion) at the University of Technology Sydney, led a panel session with scholars (Olga Oleinikova, Sally Baker, Tebeje Molla), advocate (Asher Hirst) and refugee student (Amir Ali Jalai Farahani) on Australian universities’ role in the humanitarian crisis. As an outcome of the panel discussion, an article was published to advocate more engagement in Australia following European examples. Another webinar discussed the topic of “Overcoming Barriers to Higher Education for Refugees and People Seeking Asylum”. Hosted by the National Council of Churches Refugee Taskforce, it presented two educational initiatives for refugees: the Deakin CREATE led by Dr Karen Dunwoodie and the Hope-Co-operative run by Sally Morgan. 

Veronika Durin-Hornyik, PhD

Historical record of a Cold War refugee student

I recently found this letter in the archives of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (Quai d’Orsay) which was addressed to the First Lady of France, Madame Vincent Auriol, in July 1953. The writer of the letter is a young Armenian who had been living in a refugee camp for two years in the Free Territory of Trieste. He asked for help to get a fellowship to come to France to complete his university studies.

It is not only a unique source for my research on students in exile that demonstrates how relevant and important it is to investigate this issue from a historical perspective and in the current context. But first, it bears authentic and timeless witness what the free world and a fellowship mean for a refugee student.

Veronika Durin-Hornyik, PhD

The Invisible University for Ukraine (Part 1) : historical background

The Central European University (CEU), based in Vienna and Budapest, launched on 20 April 2022 its certificate programme for Ukrainian undergraduate (BA) and graduate (MA and doctoral) students, whose studies were affected by the war, whether still residing in Ukraine or in refuge. The program called Invisible University for Ukraine (IUFU) offers an intensive learning experience ‒ including lectures and mentoring ‒, placing questions relevant for Ukrainian students into a transnational comparative perspective in the field of humanities and social sciences.

The program does not replace or duplicate the existing online education in Ukrainian universities. According to its statement, IUFU prepares students “for deeper integration into the international academia and broad ongoing discussion on the role of Ukraine in changing European and global contexts”. For this purpose, a hybrid program – including online classes and a summer university, held for the first time in Budapest and Lviv between 10 and 19 July 2022 – is provided by CEU faculty members, Ukrainian and Polish partner institutions, as well as international partners (excluding Russian state institutions or anyone supportive of Russian aggression).

The IUFU defines itself as “transnational solidarity program”, built upon the legacy of underground and exile educational initiatives in Eastern Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries and the tradition of Invisible Colleges formed after 1989 in the region.

Among Eastern European countries, Poland was particularly affected by the devastating efforts of foreign occupiers during the 19th century. The Polish intelligentsia fought to resist Russification and Germanification under foreign occupation and to keep Poland alive as a nation. To save the Polish culture from destruction, intellectuals have created informal education systems with secret libraries and underground classes. Among these initiatives the most famous was the Flying University, founded in Warsaw in 1882-1883 by the educator and women rights activist Jadwiga Szczawińska. Meeting weekly at different locations to avoid detection, four separate faculties were organized where courses were taught by radical professors. The Flying University awarded diplomas to its graduates among them the most famous was Marie Sklodowska-Curie. After 1906, the university was finally legalized. In 1918, it took the name of Free Polish University until it was disbanded in 1952.

After underground education during the resistance against Nazi Germans and Soviet occupants, flying universities had a renewal in Poland in the second half of the 1970s. Clandestine lectures were held in private apartments as well as in clerical centers and other community social centers, held by eminent Polish intellectuals to hundreds of students. While flying universities under the communist regime were supposed to be “unique in Eastern Europe”, members of the Hungarian opposition soon made contact with Polish underground education networks. Thus, the “Monday Free University” was organized in Hungary from 1978 on following the Polish model.

Following the collapse of the Soviet bloc, Invisible Colleges were established throughout the region, beginning in Hungary in 1992. Without having any facilities, they offered scholarships as well as mentoring and academic support for the most promising students at national institutions. In 1997, the Invisible College of Budapest won the Hannah Arendt Prize ‒ awarded since 1995 by the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna ‒ in recognition of “outstanding, self-initiated reform efforts in higher education and research” in the formerly Communist countries of Eastern Europe.

Veronika Durin-Hornyik PhD

An insight into fellowships for Ukrainian refugee scholars and students

As a result of Russia’s massive military offensive against Ukraine launched two weeks earlier, on Thursday February 24, over two million people have fled the country to neighboring countries and many have been internally displaced. Over half of Ukrainians are fleeing to Poland and many are seeking refuge in Hungary and Slovakia.

While European governments and institutions are imposing massive sanctions on the Russian economy and sending military aid to Ukraine, European citizens are mobilizing unanimous efforts to welcome Ukrainian refugees and send aid to Ukraine. Mass rallies are organized to protest the Russian invasion and attest solidarity with Ukraine.

On the first day of the Russian attack, Serhiy Kvit, head of the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance of Ukraine and former minister of education, asked academics from around the world to speak out against the decision of Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine. In response to his appeal, universities and scientific institutions around the world are issuing statements of solidarity on behalf of their faculty, staff, and students in condemning the Russian invasion. One need only look through the Internet, this solidarity movement has no hashtag.  

Sanctioning Russia by cutting off academic ties is not only a bold idea, but it also really happens. In the 48 hours following the invasion, the German Ministry of Research ordered the suspension of institutional collaboration on research with Russia. Other countries in Europe have followed this step. However, universities are divided to suspend collaboration with Russian institutions due to the complexity of this issue and its consequences in the short and long term.

Meanwhile, hundreds of teaching and research institutions are establishing their own relief programs for Ukrainian students and academics. To coordinate these efforts, a website and a Twitter account under the name of #ScienceForUkraine has been launched on 27 February to collect and disseminate information on university jobs and housing for Ukrainian students or researchers. National sciences academies across Europe are providing grants or fundraising to help their Ukrainian colleagues in need.

Beyond these ad hoc initiatives, it is important to mention the well-established institutions that support academics at risk for a long time. Founded in North America in reaction to the rise of totalitarian regimes in Europe during the interwar period in defense of academic freedom, they were building networks of academic institutions around the world willing to welcome and support endangered scholars and students.

Two prominent institutions are the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF), which has been continuously operating since 1920, and the Scholars-at-Risk Network, established in 2000. A recently launched initiative is The New University in Exile Consortium at The New School in New York City.  The latter builds on the legacy of the University in Exile, which was set up at The New School in 1933 to support academics fleeing the growing threat of Nazism in Europe. In 1934, the University in Exile became The New School’s Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science. In 1951, his name inspired the Free Europe University in Exile, an American educational endeavor to help Eastern European refugees fleeing Communist regimes. In September 2018, the New University in Exile Consortium was set up to tackle the challenges of the 21st century.

The UK counterpart to these American initiatives is the Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA). Operating as a network to ensure cooperation and collaboration on both national and international level, it works with 126 universities in the UK as well as with national and foreign institutions, among others, the IIE-Scholar Rescue Fund and the Scholars-at-Risk Network. Founded by British academics and scientists in 1933 in response to the racial discrimination of scholars at the universities of Nazi Germany, CARA defines itself as a “unique charitable organization, with no counterpart in Europe”.

As regards other European countries, France and Germany have also set up special programs to help researchers at risk, referring to previous national initiatives during the interwar period. These programs came about after the refugee crises in 2015 and work in partnership with the US and UK networks. In France, the distinguished French higher education and research institution Collège de France runs the PAUSE Program. In Germany, the national foundation Alexander-von-Humboldt-Stiftung helps researchers through its Philipp Schwarz Initiative. In 2017, German and Turkish scholars set up the Academy in Exile Consortium which enables threatened academics to continue their work in Germany. In September 2021, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) established the Hilde Domin Programme for university students and PhD candidates at risk.

In Norway, the Students at Risk provides financial aid to refugees from 2015, out of the prestigious Norwegian Students’ and Academics’ International Assistance Fund, established in 1961. In the Netherlands, the Foundation for Refugee Students (UAF) supports refugees and asylum seekers from 1948, providing financial, social, and academic support.

Austria has its own national agency which aids and supports both at-risk students and scholars. The Österreichischer Integrationsfonds (ÖIF) was created in response to the massive flow of refugees after the Hungarian revolution in 1956. In addition to ÖIF’s Liese Prokop Scholarship for recognized refugees, it is worth to mention other fellowship programs, namely the oead4refugees, launched by Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalization (OeAD), as well as the MORE program, run by Universities Austria (Österreichische Universitätenkonferenz, uniko).

Philanthropic organizations are extremely active on the ground, and it is difficult to compile an exhaustive list of grant programs for refugee youth and academics. However, the Open Society Foundations grantmaking network is worthy of mention because of the breadth and variety of its actions. Founded by businessman and philanthropist George Soros and currently operating in Austria and Hungary, the Central Europe University (CEU) offers a range of help to Ukrainian refugee students and academics. In 2016, CEU has launched its Open Learning Initiative (OLIve) for asylum seekers and refugees, which is now open to people fleeing the Ukrainian war. In January 2020, the Open Society Foundations established the Open Society University Network (OSUN) to promote education and reach out to institutions in need of international partners and to neglected populations. The OSUN is home to the Threatened Scholars Integration Initiative (TSI), which is now expanding grants to Ukrainian researchers.

Among the international initiatives, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) provides grants to refugees from 1992 as part of its DAFI (Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative) scholarship program, which was originally funded by the German government. For the European Union, the European Commission launched InSPIREurope (Initiative to Support, Promote and Integrate Researchers at Risk in Europe) in 2019 for a period of 3 years. The program is based at Maynooth University in Ireland and coordinated by the European branch of the Scholars-at-Risk Network.

In November 2021, German, Norwegian and Polish national education institutions jointly called for the European Commission to establish a permanent scholarship program for students at risk to “demonstrate the Union’s for support academic freedom, fundamental values, civic and human rights”. The Russian invasion of Ukraine provides impetus for this project. Given that Europe is constantly confronted with humanitarian crises due to international conflicts (Syria, Afghanistan, Belarus, Ukraine), decisive action will sooner or later be taken at European level to defend academic freedom as a fundamental European value.

Veronika Durin-Hornyik PhD

Refugee Fellow tells about her experience as a scholarship holder

While searching for data on fellowship programs for exiled youth, I found a recent interview with a Palestinian refugee. She is currently working in Lebanon as a gender and gender-based-violence (GBV) coordinator at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. Although recognized as a human rights issue by the United Nations for a long time, legal and structural efforts to fight GBV gained traction from the late 1990s throughout the 2000s.

This Palestinian refugee was awarded in 2019 from the Chevening Scholarship to study in the UK in the field of Development and Emergency Practice. The Chevening Scholarship program was founded in 1983 by the British government’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office and runs with the purpose of “creating lasting positive relationships with future leaders, influencers, and decision-makers, which become valuable soft power networks”.

The refugee fellow tells in the interview on one hand how this unique experience broadened her views and improved her skills and on the other hand how she tried to shift other people’s perspectives about migrant communities through her work and personal story. Reading her personal account, the idea of “return to homeland” (in her case, to the host country in Lebanon) and education are playing the key role to help those in needs in her host country thanks to the acquired skills and experiences made during the fellowship time. As she says, “I want to be a role model for women in refugee communities. I believe in the power of education; I believe that education can change lives (…)”.

https://www.chevening.org/news/study-in-the-uk/