Changing lives one degree at a time: overcoming the barriers to refugee higher education in Australia

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday V)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Removing barriers to quality education for refugee students

Proposal

Forced displacement has been on the rise in recent times, with the record high number of 68.5 million people displaced globally (UNHCR 2017). This steady growth in magnitude of displacement and mounting evidence that displacement is of long-term and protracted nature has highlighted the need to move away from a caretaker approach and focus more on the long-term needs of refugees. One such need is access to educational opportunities which can help to facilitate the integration of refugees and asylum seekers.
Despite recent efforts in the field of refugee education, including tertiary education, much remains to be done. In 2015, only 1% of all refugees were enrolled at universities worldwide, contrasting with an average of 34% university enrolment in the year prior (UNHCR 2017). This is a human rights issue of concern for refugees, NGOs, UNHCR and the international community and yet one which despite a growing focus in the academic and policy literature remains under-researched and under-addressed. Australia is particularly unique among countries of much of the global north. Being one of the world’s top resettlement countries (UNHCR 2017), Australia implements punitive policies for refugees who have sought asylum by boat and denies them access to education.
This paper explores the barriers that hinder access to higher education for people from refugee and asylum-seeker backgrounds in Australia. Additionally, it analyses international best practice approaches and makes suggestions on what Australian higher education institutions can do to ensure that people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds have more opportunities to access higher education institutions.
To guide the analysis, rights-based and capability approaches are applied to understand what access barriers to education for individuals from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds are in place and how they can be addressed. The rights-based approach to education draws on obligations under international treaties (e.g. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights) and sees education for refugees and asylum seekers as an entitlement rather than the need (ARRA 2008).
Amartya Sen’s (1999) capability approach links development, quality of life and freedom. The advantage that education brings to the life of an individual acts as a catalyst for expanding people’s agency and freedom and driver of economic growth.
Relevant Australian legislation (e.g. Migration Act 1958, Migration Regulations 1994, and others) and legal obligations under the International law were analysed using qualitative content analysis to map out and understand the Australian context.
This study found that Australia is failing to comply with treaties, setting out Australia's international human rights obligations which Australia has voluntarily entered in.
It finds that these access barriers are largely legal, financial, and institutional. Additionally, the Australian context is unique in the way it addresses (or fails to) the challenges of accessing higher education for refugees, with possibly limited approaches and solutions to date.
The presentation will introduce these findings in detail and make suggestions for improvement of Australia’s response to refugees’ educational needs.

Author

• Elena Killiakova, City of Ryde; Refugee Education Special Interest Group (Australia)