Scholarship Programs as an Education Pathway for Refugees: Columbia University’s Displaced Students Scholarship
According to the United Nations (UN), there are over 82 million forcibly displaced people in the world. For many, displacement has led to disrupted education with limited access to continued learning opportunities. Higher education in particular is often inaccessible to displaced people, with only a staggering 1% of refugees reaching university level of education while globally over one-third of young people of university age are in tertiary education. Limited access to higher education affects livelihood and economic opportunities for displaced people and their families and communities.This indicates a growing humanitarian need for higher educational opportunities for displaced students. Academic scholarships are a promising pathway for displaced students to find protection in a humane and dignified way.
Scholarships as an Education Pathway
Academic scholarships are often short-term opportunities for displaced students to continue their education with the intention of returning to their home county. This can be beneficial as education plays a critical role in ensuring sustainable, peaceful development in post-conflict reconstruction of one’s home country. Some scholarships can also indicate long-term opportunities that lead to greater integration into the host community as a contributing member of society. However, scholarship opportunities for refugees should not be used as an alternative to resettlement, but as an additional pathway or parallel protection intervention for the most vulnerable refugees.
Refugees have unique circumstances and scholarship creation must take into account the educational challenges that refugees face and be adaptable to meeting their needs as outlined by the UNHCR in the minimum protection safeguards for refugees. Scholarships should cover the full course of study for the entire duration of the degree or certification, as well as living accommodations to support displaced students financially while they are pursuing their studies. There should also be additional resources provided by the institution and surrounding community to some effort of social cohesion for displaced students.
The creation of scholarships as educational pathways for displaced students calls for greater collaboration between higher education institutions, civil society organizations, UN agencies, and private sector partners to fund and administer such programs for the growing displaced population.
Columbia University’s Displaced Students Scholarship
Columbia University has created a leading scholarship opportunity for displaced students. The Columbia University Scholarship for Displaced Students (CUSDS) was created to meet the needs of displaced students by providing an opportunity to pursue higher education at Columbia University. With upwards of a $6 million budget, an up-to-30 student cohort is selected each year. This cohorts consist of displaced students from anywhere in the world, including foreign nationals with refugee status, recipients of US asylum or Temporary Protected Status, or Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), who have been accepted by one of the undergraduate or graduate programs at any of the 18 of Columbia’s schools and affiliates. The scholarship includes full tuition, housing, and living assistance for the duration of the student’s program. Additional support is offered in the form of mentorship through schools and student groups at Columbia.
A Conversation with Columbia University’s Displaced Students Scholarship Recipient Asaad Hanna
Asaad Hanna, a graduate student at Columbia’s School of International and Public affairs and originally from Homs, Syria, is a recipient of the Scholarship for Displaced Students. Asaad answered some questions we at Refugee Pathways had about his experience with the scholarship program, and what the opportunity means to him.
RP: Please share any information about how displacement affected your education.
Asaad: I am from Syria, and since 2011 when the uprising began, the Syrian government started using the military against the civilians. Therefore, the schools stopped, and the universities also paused for a while, and millions of people left the country and started a new life from scratch. In Syria, I studied commerce and specialized in accounting. I’ve never thought I would be studying in a different language, different country, or doing an international relation major as I am doing now, but I thought that even when we get our life disrupted, we should try to organize it somehow. That’s why I wanted to study again.
RP: How did you hear about the Scholarship for Displaced Students at Columbia?
Asaad: I do a lot of work on solidarity and supporting the refugees. That’s why I follow up with any news regarding refugees. Then, I reached out to some friends who were already studying in Columbia and helped me navigate the application and the requirements.
RP: How was your experience with the application process? Was it easy to complete or was it challenging?
Asaad: The application process was very smooth and easy, I can say reasonable for an Ivy League university, but the challenge was the communication after I was admitted. It was especially challenging the first few months of COVID-19 since people were not prepared yet, but this improved over time.
RP: What is required of you as a recipient of this scholarship? Are the requirements reasonable or hard to maintain?
Asaad: The requirements are pretty much as reasonable as any other scholarship, in addition to some papers for the specification of this scholarship, such as being not in your home country.
RP: Do you receive any support or protections from Columbia beyond financial academic support for you as a scholarship recipient?
Asaad: The team of the scholarship program are awesome, they are always in touch with the recipients providing all kinds of support, helping us navigate and find what we need, in addition to the academic support. But there’s no additional protection because we are not in an asylum process.
RP: Is there anything else you would like to share about your experience with the scholarship program?
Asaad: I would say, I was so lucky to be one of the recipients of this scholarship, and I hope more students can join in the coming years. I hope to see more initiatives and scholarships to support those who want to study, because that’s how we can make the future brighter and the world to be a better place.
Refugee Pathways encourages scholarship opportunities for displaced students as an essential contribution to empowering displaced and refugee communities. Further information regarding higher education during times of emergency, education as a complementary pathway to resettlement, and Refugee Pathways work identifying scholarship programs for refugees can all be found on Refugee Pathways’ Medium page. Listings of available academic scholarships for displaced and refugee students can be found on our website refugeepathways.org.
Written by Emily Ervin for Refugee Pathways
