Refugees and Higher Education: Trans-National Perspectives on Access, Equity, and Internationalization

Refugees and Higher Education provides a cross-disciplinary lens on one American university’s approach to studying the policies, practices, and experiences associated with the higher education of refugee background students. The focus is not only on refugee education as an issue of access and equity, but also on this phenomenon as seen through the lens of internationalization. What competencies are called for among university faculty and staff welcoming refugee-background students to their institutional contexts? How might ＂distance learning＂ be considered anew? These challenges and opportunities for institutional growth will be closely considered by this group of authors from educational leadership, social work, curriculum development, and higher education itself. They address key world regions, and sub-topics ranging from online education in refugee camps to the Brazilian and Colombian responses to the emerging crisis in Venezuela. Scholars researching refugee education cross-nationally often find that refugee education literature is parsed by disciplinary field. This book, in contrast, offers a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary overview of refugee education issues around the world. These perspectives also provide key insights for faculty and staff at higher education institutions that currently enroll asylees or refugees, as well as those that may do so in the future.

Lisa Unangst is a PhD candidate in Higher Education at Boston College. She has published in the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management and Policy Reviews in Higher Education. Her research focuses on refugee education in Germany and elsewhere.

Hakan Ergin is a Lecturer at Istanbul University. He previously completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Center for International Higher Education, Boston College. His research interests include internationalization of higher education, adult education, migration, right to education and distance learning.

Araz Khajarian is a master’s student at Boston College. She earned her B.A. from Salve Regina University after previous study at the Higher Institute of Business Administration in Damascus. Her thesis examines context-relativity in organizational culture at a Jordanian university.

Tessa DeLaquil is a Ph.D. student and research assistant at CIHE, Boston College. Her research interests include the philosophy of higher education and religious pluralism. She previously attended Queen’s University and the Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Hans de Wit has published many articles on international higher education and was founding editor of the Journal of Studies in International Education and founding member of the European Association for International Education. He is Director of Boston College’s CIHE.