Stay in the loop! Subscribe to our mailing list
Leading partner: EDUFI
Objectives: Through the webinars, the project consortium provided training support for HEIs across Europe on topics and issues of interest on the basis of the GREET PLA results.
Target group: national organisations and HEIs from Europe, wider higher education community
Description: EDUFI delivered three European-level thematic webinars for HEIs and other higher education stakeholders in Europe, with potential for much wider European and global use. Speakers at the webinars were representatives of European HEIs, European Commission, Scholars at Risk network and IIE Scholar Rescue Fund, as well as at-risk scholars who shared their own experiences with webinar participants. The three thematic webinars were delivered in the period February-March 2019 on the following topics:
Integration of highly skilled refugees into higher education has been a particularly relevant question especially since 2015. At the same time, violent crises in Syria and Yemen, to mention only few, threaten the higher education systems and academia of these countries. A lot of support initiatives have been launched and they continue to be important.
This webinar focused on the role of the European higher education community in supporting higher education in emergencies as well as integration of highly-skilled refugees in Europe. Why is this kind of support needed now more than ever? The speakers reflected on the importance of institutional engagement, motivation behind commitment and links to strategy of the HEIs.
Speakers:
José Diez Verdejo, European Commission - EU support for refugees in higher education and research (pdf) (video clip)
Nadine Shovakar, Universities Austria (uniko) - Links to strategy (pdf) (video clip)
Marita Häkkinen, University of Jyväskylä, SIMHE Finland - Institutional level commitment and perspective (pdf) (video clip)
The entire recorded webinar can be accessed here.
Students with refugee background might need tailored support when entering the higher education system, and also when they are ready to leave the university and enter the job market. They might not be familiar with the host countries’ procedures of application and CV writing, job interviews, researching on job opportunities etc. They might also lack the networks and connections and therefore need more guidance when it comes to getting an overview of the job market. Universities can support refugee students in various ways: Partnerships with companies, internship programmes, career fares, training and seminars on soft skills and many other measures can help refugee students and also international students in general to enhance their chances ion the job market.
In this webinar the participants were presented a model in place in Germany, an analysis of results of a nationally implemented programme in Finland, as well as some regional examples on successful integration projects of refugee academics in Sweden.
Speakers:
Luise Haack, University of Passau, Germany - Project iStudi-Coach and iStudi-Pass of the University of Passau (pdf) (video clip)
Vesa Parkkonen, Häme University of Applied Sciences, Finland - Presentation of the main results of the project Urareitti – The Career Path, Guidance Services (pdf) (video clip)
Eva-Britt Grönberg, Region Skåne, Sweden - Regional collaboration for successful integration of refugee academics, examples from Skåne (Southern Sweden) (pdf) (video clip)
The entire recorded webinar can be accessed here.
The third GREET webinar focused on a central issue linked to all scholarship schemes providing support for threatened scholars to continue their career in a safe environment: the post-scholarship options. As the scholarship is inevitably limited only to a certain period, the question of the long-term career perspective plays an essential role in the overall success of the support measures.
How to create sustainable career paths for the scholars after the funding period? We heard the views of experts working in this field, as well as from a scholar who has been able to build a sustainable career after the funding period.
Speakers:
Olga Gregorian, Institute of International Education (IIE) Scholar Rescue Fund (video clip) and Sarina Rosenthal, Scholars at Risk (SAR) - Experiences of career advancement for scholars (pdf) (video clip)
Frank Albrecht, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation - Perspectives from Philipp Schwartz Initiative (video clip)
Dr. Tuba Inal-Cekic, Einstein Senior Scholar, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Career path of a scholar (pdf) (video clip)
The entire recorded webinar can be accessed here.