Imminent UK refugee student scheme ‘will be transformative’

The UK government is on the brink of launching a long-awaited scheme to provide a safe and legal route to help “talented refugees continue their studies” after being criticised for blocking study options for some of those most in need.

Nearly a year after Keir Starmer, who was then prime minister, announced plans to reform asylum policy, including by establishing a pathway for gifted displaced students to study in the UK, applications for candidates look set to open in the next few weeks.

The scheme follows a successful pilot called the Displaced Students Initiative, which has been run by charity Refugee Education UK for the past few years. The idea was inspired by the plight of women and girls in Afghanistan, who are banned from secondary and higher education by the Taliban.

Students from Afghanistan are currently not allowed into the UK on student visas under the visa brake imposed on four countries in March – a move heavily criticised by universities.

The University of Winchester provided Refugee Education UK with a “small amount of seed funding” to see what it might look like to design a programme for forcibly displaced young people to attend university, said Catherine Gladwell, the charity’s chief executive.

The charity engaged with a group of young Sudanese women in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. Their home country has been ravaged by civil war since April 2023, with Doctors Without Borders estimating that 60 per cent of the Sudanese population requires humanitarian aid.

Until now, there has been no government-endorsed route for UK universities to support refugees. Existing student visa policy, Gladwell said, is problematic because it exposes graduating displaced students to “a cliff edge” when they complete their degree course and find themselves without the legal classification of “refugee” to keep them safely in the UK. In addition, visas can entail prohibitive international student costs.

In response to this issue, Refugee Education UK partnered with the University of Exeter to bring the Sudanese group to the UK to study and to support them with a scholarship to cover tuition fees and living costs.

In November last year, Labour announced plans to introduce a capped route for refugee and displaced students to study in the UK. The hope is that beneficiaries will one day be able to return to their home country and “help rebuild it”.

And on 29 October, the Home Office released its policy paper detailing the plans. It means, Gladwell says, that about 40 students spread across some 15 universities in the UK should arrive as the scheme’s initial cohort in September 2027.

They will be allowed to access home fee status, and Refugee Education UK envisages every participating institution offering each successful applicant year-round accommodation and a bursary of about £3,500 as a top-up for the student loan for which they will be eligible.

Student applications are expected to open imminently. Institutions in Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland have all expressed interest in taking part, according to Gladwell, and “over the coming months” universities can expect “a process…to officially be recognised”.

The proposition looks similar to what universities already do for care leavers. But it also has roots in what are known as Third Country Education Pathways, an avenue by which refugees travel from their country of asylum to a third country for study. Versions of the scheme run in Canada and Australia already.

Gladwell said these were “catalytic schemes” and “transformative” for both their participants and their host institutions.

“What these students eventually go on to contribute to communities is really, really rich, so I think it’s wonderful the UK now has the opportunity to participate,” she said.

georgia.luckhurst@timeshighereducation.com