Complementary pathways would give more refugees HE access

A major report for the United Nations refugee agency has urged policy-makers and stakeholders in West and Central Africa to open up ‘complementary pathways’ in the region to enable refugees to access higher education and training in third countries and develop their skills and competencies to enter the labour market and contribute to post-conflict reconstruction when they return to their countries of origin.

The report compares data from 21 countries in West and Central Africa (WCA) and was commissioned by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) regional bureau for WCA, which has the ambitious target of 15% of college-eligible refugees enrolled in higher education or technical and vocational education and training (TVET) by 2030.

In 2020-21, the UNHCR estimated that only 3% of refugees worldwide were in tertiary, technical and vocational training or connected education programmes in host and third countries and reported baseline figures of less than 1% in some WCA countries.

So extraordinary efforts will be required to reach the 2030 target and the new report turns the spotlight on the urgent need for a collective approach by West and Central African nations to get more young refugees into higher education and TVET.

The new study, Complementary Pathways through Education for Refugees in the West and Central Africa Region: Mapping refugee education opportunities, was carried out for UNHCR by Education Sub-Saharan Africa (ESSA), which describes itself as a United Kingdom and Africa-based charity using African data and evidence to improve education in Sub-Saharan Africa, enabling young people to achieve their ambitions and strengthening society.

The exercise identified existing and potential pathways through education for refugees in the region and highlighted some of the main barriers to access, as well as suggesting possible areas for further engagement.

Expand access to third countries

In particular, it investigated the feasibility of expanding access to education in third West and Central African countries to relieve the pressure on the higher education and TVET sectors in neighbouring states hosting huge numbers of refugees fleeing conflicts and environmental disasters.

Among the key messages from the study was that, while giving refugees access to education under the same conditions as nationals is commendable, it is not equitable, given the additional socio-economic challenges and barriers faced by refugees in host countries.

“Additional financial resources and support from UNHCR and its existing or potential investors and other stakeholders will be needed to help accelerate the availability and accessibility of complementary education opportunities to refugees,” the report concludes.

Dr Pauline Essah, ESSA’s director of research and insight, told University World News the charity had considerable experience in gathering evidence in Sub-Saharan Africa, including mapping scholarships and scholarship providers for African students as published in UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report for 2020.

She described complementary pathways as “safe and regulated avenues that provide refugees with opportunities to lawfully transfer from an asylum country to stay in a third country” while ensuring their international protection needs are met.

“Complementary pathways focusing on education enable the transfer of refugees to a third country specifically to improve their education and enable the refugees to support themselves,” she added.

Fellow author of the new report, Dr Laté Lawson, research manager (data) at ESSA, told University World News they hoped the findings would influence policy in the region to enhance refugee access to higher and tertiary education.

Robust information management system needed

He said: “We need a robust information management system to collect and analyse baseline data on the key factors influencing the design of appropriate and accessible complementary pathways through education, and to document pathways that currently exist.

“This is vital for increasing the visibility and use of existing education pathways by refugees in the West and Central Africa region and targeting new ones where they are most needed.

“This data is also required for monitoring progress and ensuring accountability by different stakeholders and together building a knowledge ecosystem that facilitates stakeholder and sector-wide learning and collective voice to increase education pathways for refugees.”

Lawson told University World News the ESSA report would help inform UNHCR where there is scope to further develop education-based complementary pathways in the region and be a useful tool to “advocate for investment, clarity of opportunities and legal arrangements towards refugees and migrants so they can access higher education and technical and vocational training in West and Central Africa countries”.

Ben Harvey, the senior regional resettlement and complementary pathways officer at the UNHCR’s regional bureau for West and Central Africa, welcomed the findings.

He told University World News: “This report provides concrete information about the existing education and vocational opportunities available to refugees within the West and Central Africa region, as well as where and how these might be further developed.

“We hope that the findings will lead to greater interest in developing these programmes and offer a broader range of more localised opportunities for refugees in the West and Central Africa region.”

Limited data and scholarship opportunities

Among the challenges facing the ESSA research team was the limited scholarly knowledge on refugees’ access to higher education in West and Central Africa and lack of data on college-ready refugees in the region, as well as too few scholarship opportunities for young refugees, Lawson told University World News.

“Refugee access to higher education does not seem to be prioritised in West and Central Africa and, where policies exist, to address some of the issues there is often a lack of awareness or implementation and little or no accountability for any of this,” he said.

There are, however, examples in some countries where parts of the higher education sector are responding to the need to help refugees.

50% fee discount in private institutions in Chad

Private higher education institutions in Chad and some parts of Cameroon offer refugees a 50% reduction in tuition fees, which serves as a model to facilitate refugees’ access to education.

However, the legal framework on refugee access to tertiary education is not clearly defined within the West and Central African region.

“For instance, while refugees in most West and Central African countries have access to tertiary education under the same conditions as nationals, in Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal, refugees are considered foreign students and charged higher tuition fees,” said Lawson.

Freedom of movement provision in economic blocs

One advantage the region can build on is the freedom of movement offered by the two main economic communities, or blocs, in West and Central Africa, which afford various degrees of mutual assistance to citizens from other member states.

This is strongest in countries belonging to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which gives citizens the right to free-entry, stay and work in other member states.

Such rights are less consistent for countries belonging to the second bloc, the Economic Community of Central Africa States (ECCAS), with some countries requesting visas from citizens of the other members of the community, explained Essah.

Key challenges and barriers

Among the barriers to refugees settling into second and third countries and seeking higher education opportunities are the variation of main languages used for teaching in various West and Central African countries, with anglophone versus francophone versus lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) institutions in different countries.

“This needs to be considered when relocating or resettling refugees using complementary education pathways,” Essah told University World News.

On top of linguistic and cultural barriers to moving to a second or third country to study or train for a better life, refugees within and from the region also face challenges relating to physical access to provision, insufficient financing for their studies and the need to provide evidence of their entry eligibility.

Youthful demographics of refugees in WCA

The report from ESSA notes that all West and Central African countries are affected by migration and refugee crises, either as the origin, transit or destination of increasing refugee movements, with UNHCR data showing the number of refugees in the region has doubled in the past decade and that Chad, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and Mali are the countries most affected by refugee movements.

The demographics of refugees in the region indicate that most refugees are under 18 years old and the ESSA report concludes: “The youthful demographic of refugee populations in WCA lends itself to a focus on education as a contributor to structural integration and meaningful opportunities for economic activity beyond the informal economy and labour markets.

“Therefore, education can contribute to the creation of durable solutions for refugees.”

The key conditions for developing complementary pathways, says the report, are:

• The presence of higher education institutions and TVET that, in addition to responding to the inherent demand from nationals, can absorb refugee students in significant numbers.

• The existence of local organisations and networks, including among refugees and diaspora populations, to support new refugees’ integration and community absorption.

• The responsiveness of the higher education system to prevailing socio-economic conditions and levels of demand, as evidenced by enrolment into that system.

• The country’s capacity to absorb the educated refugees into stable, durable socio-economic solutions as evidenced by the presence of acceptable living conditions.

An annex to the study from ESSA gives useful data on the population profile and prevailing education strategy and labour conditions in each of the 21 West and Central Africa countries as well as mapping existing pathways and specific challenges to refugee access to education and training.

Nic Mitchell is a UK-based freelance journalist and PR consultant specialising in European and international higher education. He blogs at www.delacourcommunications.com.