The case for Higher Education in Emergencies

• In Event: Strengthening the Education in Emergencies workforce - harmonization, collaboration and innovation

Proposal

As emergencies frequently become protracted, access by those forcibly displaced to all levels of education, including tertiary and higher education, becomes essential to youth engagement and their development. Education fosters innovation and entrepreneurial skills that are important for employability, economic activity, and job creation—elements that are critical for
stability during times of reconstruction and for longer term sustainable development. If refugees and internally displaced persons receive a quality education while in exile, they are more likely to develop the necessary skills to make use of the existing economic, social, and political systems in their host communities as well as upon return to their country of origin.

Over the years, InZone—a Higher Education in Emergencies (HEiE) actor whose mission is to design, develop and scientifically validate HEiE models that respect humanitarian principles—has identified key HEiE challenges: access to education, quality of educational programs, relevance of programs, and management of programs in the field and remotely.
When designing programs for fragile contexts, most HEiE providers have aimed to facilitate equal access to programs. Nevertheless, a series of physical, intellectual, financial and legal factors have hampered this access, including insufficient infrastructure and connectivity, the length and cost of travel to the learning center, insecurity, a lack of ICT skills, language barriers, religious and cultural factors, course costs, and a lack of needed legal documentation, particularly education credentials, to access higher education. In receiving countries refugee learners have faced challenges of credential recognition, language barriers, tuition barriers, and overall mainstreaming into the local Higher Education environment. Universities have adopted a wide range of innovative solutions to surmount these challenges, from integrating technology and pedagogy, to creating viable learning spaces in fragile contexts, to scholarship schemes in refugee hosting countries and destination countries. The latter option is also specifically mentioned in the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) as complementary pathway to resettlement.

In light of the fact that protracted displacement settings can differ considerably from one another, there is no substitute for adopting a bottom-up approach and developing learning spaces that allow for both intellectual and artistic expression. Traditional HE programs are usually geared to specific degrees, still offer little flexibility, and do not cater adequately yet to alternative learning pathways. Online education platforms offer a wide range of learning options and a variety of pedagogical approaches. Such innovative tools and programs increase access to learning and offer great potential for higher education; however, such initiatives may face resistance from traditional university programs, particularly
due to challenges regarding accreditation, recognition of degrees, and credit transfers. On-line platforms alone, without a well-designed virtual learning environment to support learners throughout the learning journey, are however not the answer. Independent on-line learning is challenging for most adult learners living in non-fragile contexts; for those in fragility the social-emotional learning need to be addressed on a par with financial, connectivity, and language needs.

To meet the needs of higher education students in crisis contexts universities have to re-imagine ways in which higher education can support life-long learning and critical reflection and how learning can be contextualised to support local innovation and knowledge production. This is part of higher education’s civic engagement role which in today’s world should equal the importance of its teaching and research roles.

In this contribution we will look at higher education’s three-fold mission of teaching, research and civic engagement, and as partner in responsibly meeting the needs of learners in crisis contexts.

Author

• Barbara Barbara Moser-Mercer, The University of Geneva