The Inclusion of Refugees and Students at Risk in the Higher Education System: a Literature Review
Chapter
Author(s) / editor(s):
Elisa Gamba
Year: 2025
Abstract:
The condition of refugees in higher education is gaining more and more
attention, however, despite many initiatives being created and promoted in the
Global North, refugees in academia still face numerous challenges (Lambrechts
2020, Kalocsányiová et al. 2022), starting with the difficulties universities
encounter in collecting data on this specific group of students (Brunner et al.
2024). Still, universities have the potential to do much to foster a real inclusion
of refugees in the higher education system (Ager and Strang 2008, Sontag 2021):
higher education institutions have a social and moral responsibility (Rundell et al.
2018, Piazza and Rizzari 2019, Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia et al. 2021, Berg 2023, De
Maria et al. 2023) to serve the public good (Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia et al. 2021),
as social agents with the final aim of creating a better world (Rundell et al. 2018).
For refugees, the academic world can be a space of freedom after much suffering
(Arar et al. 2020), and hopefully also a space of psycho-social well-being (Jack et al.
2019): education brings daily structured activity and purpose, and its normalising
routine has a therapeutic value (Elwyn et al. 2012). To achieve this, it is essential to
keep in mind that access to education is a human right and, consequently, ‘shifting
from the traditional approach of charity to a restorative lens of humanistic and
inclusive perspective while supporting and empowering those who are in need’
(Rundell et al. 2018, 19).
https://www.padovauniversitypress.it/it/publications/9788869384714
Post created by: Elisa Gamba