The role of displaced students, including refugees, in international higher education is limited but growing. The percentage of refugee youth participating in higher education around the globe increased from 1 per cent in 2019 to 6 per cent in 2022, according to the UNHCR, and there are even more ambitious goals for the future, with UNHCR seeking 15 per cent refugee enrolment by 2030.
Yet numeric goals can obscure how institutions can better support forcibly displaced students, including their transition to new societies. Universities often celebrate their role in shaping engaged citizens. It might seem counterintuitive, because displaced and refugee students might not enjoy the formal status of citizens, but facilitating civic engagement opportunities for these students is even more important than for “traditional” students. Empowering them through civic engagement is valuable both for the students and for the academic communities in which they are situated.
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What does it mean for a displaced student to be civically engaged?
Our work over the past five years with displaced students and refugees demonstrates that they can effectively participate in a wide array of civic engagement activities. They take community-engaged courses that connect theory with practice and share engagement experiences in virtual and in-person conferences across the globe. They participate in short-term volunteer projects. Most importantly, they participate in, and often lead, robust civic engagement projects that address issues in their local communities or their communities back home. These projects might entail supporting other immigrants to make a transition in New York, helping girls learn English in Afghanistan, providing tutoring programmes for Rohingya in Bangladesh, or helping residents of a refugee camp record music and develop podcasts.
How does civic engagement shape displaced and refugee students?
The results of our surveys of 178 displaced and marginalised students from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Palestine, Ukraine and several African countries, many of whom have been supported by the Open Society University Network and Education Above All, make clear that participating in civic engagement projects has a significant impact on their lives. A whopping 96.7 per cent of those surveyed would recommend participation in a civic engagement project to a friend in similar circumstances. The surveys and select interviews indicate that, whether students study at a brick-and-mortar institution in a new home or are enrolled in a university in exile that offers courses online, participating in civic engagement activities:
- facilitates social integration by building communal connections
- fosters academic and professional development by allowing them to develop communication, organisational and leadership skills
- supports mental health by giving structure, meaning and a sense of agency, and turning personal struggles or challenges into meaningful action
- provides a sense of agency and allows students to learn about their new environment or to maintain an affirmative connection to the communities they were forced to leave and to which they might have some distant hope of one day returning.
Most importantly, it allows displaced students to move from survival to contribution, becoming architects of their own destinies and leaders in the communities where they now reside. They advance beyond the status of “refugee” and “displaced” to become leaders, educators and change-makers.
Lessons for universities
This discussion of civic engagement underscores the need for higher education leaders to reflect on their approach to displaced students and refugees. There is already considerable evidence that universities can play a salutary role in helping displaced students navigate a new life.
It is important to note that this is not a one-sided relationship. Displaced students contribute significantly to university communities; their viewpoints, knowledge and leadership are critical to addressing the interconnected concerns of displacement, inequality and global citizenship, and provide insight into myriad global challenges. For universities to realise these benefits, or to play the role envisioned by UNHCR, three significant attitudinal shifts must take place within universities.
Shift one: from beneficiaries to contributors
Displaced students should be viewed as net contributors to academic life. Framing displaced students as victims and recipients of charity is demeaning and underestimates their intrinsic worth. Displaced students bring unique perspectives to campus and the classroom, offering insights on a wide array of issues, from migration to gender to human rights to international affairs.
Shift two: from non-citizens to civic assets
Displaced students should be viewed as civic assets, not simply as people without citizenship who need to be coddled and cared for. When given the opportunity, displaced students from across the globe can effectively lead or participate in civic engagement projects and, in so doing, both contribute to communities and assist with the difficult transition to a new society.
Shift three: universities from observers to civic actors
Universities should embrace their role as civic actors. The growing emphasis on “neutrality” in terms of institutional positions on issues of the day does not mean that they should abandon their social mission, particularly in socialising new citizens and integrating them into society. By treating displaced students not as exotic “others” but as members of a community who have intrinsic worth and value, universities live up to their ideals and send a message about the transcendent value of human dignity.
Looking ahead, integrating displaced students into higher education should be viewed as a means of redefining what universities could be. Their experiences encourage institutions to interrogate their civic purpose and think beyond national boundaries, creating learning environments based on shared responsibility, empathy and resilience that benefit the entire community.
Jonathan Becker is vice-president for academic affairs and director of the Center for Civic Engagement at Bard College in New York and vice-chancellor of the Global Higher Education Alliance for the 21st Century (GHEA21). Zarlasht Sarmast is civic engagement programme coordinator for GHEA21 and the Bard Center for Civic Engagement. Their article “Civic engagement and the displaced” recently appeared in the journal Internationalisation of Higher Education – Policy and Practice.
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