The UOC is part of #UniversitatRefugi

Sixty-one refugees or asylum-seekers have passed through the UOC's online classrooms since 2016. Three years after the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean began, marked by public outrage at the image of little Aylan on a Turkish beach, the UOC reviews the initiatives undertaken to become a #UniversitatRefugi, committed to human rights and social justice.

With its e-learning model, the UOC has been able to reach people who are in transit, who have not yet arrived to our country or who are trapped in refugee camps beyond our borders, but also those who live here and have not had the chance to resume or start their university studies.

In February 2016, the UOC opened the Refugee Welcome Programme, which consists of offering scholarships to study languages, one of the biggest obstacles in gaining admission to university, and postgraduate specializations. With the slogan "The UOC welcomes", the members of the UOC community (students, faculty and administrative staff) have offered voluntary mentoring service to student refugees throughout the academic the year and special tutoring classrooms that cater for these people's specific needs.

What impact has the admission of refugees to the University had? To commemorate World Refugee Day, refugees and volunteers explain what the experience has brought them, and the values and convictions that induced them to take part.

Student refugees

*To guarantee the participants' anonymity, the names used are not their real names.

At present, only 1% of refugees have access to higher education, a fundamental right that gives these people more tools to start a new life or to help rebuild or improve their home countries.

Sara*, one of the beneficiaries of the welcome programme, had to leave Angola after being coerced and then accused of a crime, with a strong possibility of the case not being investigated diligently. Going back to university after nine years "has opened new opportunities, enabled me to acquire knowledge that is fulfilling in itself and connected me with today's job market outside of my home country". [t&s1] She is taking a specialization in Economics at the UOC.

"I had to leave Somalia because I was threatened by the military group al-Shabab after I had led a women's empowerment programme through political participation in different issues that were important for them", explains Ibrahim*, who is studying for a specialization in Food Systems Analysis. "Now that I am in Spain, and after almost three years without studying, I have had the opportunity to start a new course at the UOC."

The UOC volunteers

More than 50 mentors have joined the UOC's mentoring service. All student refugees have been mentored by a volunteer from the UOC through RefugeESuoc, a project that was started by a group of students enrolled on the Bachelor's Degree in Social Education. "I became a volunteer in 2015. The experience has given me much more than I could ever give to it. I have understood that you don't need to speak the same language to communicate with other people", explains Marta Flaqué, one of the people who started the initiative.

Cristina Villanueva, a Social Education student, has been involved in both years that the programme has been organized. As well as improving knowledge of the language or learning new technologies, "the scholarship holders have the chance to broaden their social networks". But being a mentor is not an easy job. "You have to follow the instructions given by the UOC's professionals and be able to empathize. Being a refugee is a situation that I would not wish on anyone. You have to be ready to support them when they need it, without expecting anything in return."

Along the same lines, Encarna Hernández, a volunteer who is studying Psychology, thinks that following a university course may help refugees improve their self-esteem and motivation. "I have been able to mentor a student from Senegal who has managed to complete his studies and who now has the possibility of finding work. That in itself is reward enough for me."

"Education is a basic need that must be fulfilled and everyone should have access to it", says Núria de la Maza, who is also studying Psychology. She thinks that studying helps refugees adapt to the society where they will now live, which is very different from the society they have lived in until now. Equal opportunities, inclusion and culture would be essential concepts in this context.

As well as the volunteer programme, UOC students who wish to can contribute to funding the welcome and mentoring programme through charitable enrolment.

Shared classrooms

The scholarship holders share classrooms with the other UOC students. Coming into contact with different realities fosters a critical vision and skills related with human rights, equity, developing a culture of peace and non-violence, world citizenship or cultural diversity. Being a #UniversitatRefugi university means "supporting a vision that views education as a fundamental universal right", says Laura Casals, a professor at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.

"It is important to support projects like this because we are convinced that education and training are the way to improve the situation of people at risk of social exclusion", assures Casals. Even so, challenges must be faced in the classrooms. "Adapting to our university culture is a two-fold process: adapting to the local university culture and adapting to the online university."

Providing a personalized response

The UOC provides a welcome classroom to cater for refugee students' specific needs. Patricia Benson is the tutor who accompanies them during the year. Tutoring a group of student refugees "involves much more than providing academic guidance to students; it demands total commitment, honesty, sincerity and tenacity", she explains.

"When you get a message from a student that says: 'You have given us hope', it makes you realise that you have a moral obligation to help in every way you can but, as a tutor, you do not always have the tools to do this. And that's a shame. We give hope, but we can't always turn hope into reality", Benson explains. That is why the University wishes not only to become a place that welcomes but also a place that exposes inequity, a place for justice, reparation and truth where it is possible to analyse the origin, the circumstances, the journey and the arrival, thanks to the work done by its faculty and researchers. Jordi Borja, Tomás Jiménez, Blanca Torrubia and Víctor Sánchez, among others, are working at the UOC on issues related with human rights, migrations or refuge.

Challenges in university management

The UOC's teaching and management model enables it to reach refugees not only after they have arrived in the host country but also at the entry camps in Europe. One of the biggest hurdles in gaining admission to university is accrediting previous studies. Isabel Guinovart, head of the Academic Secretary's Office, maintains that this is the biggest challenge from the academic administration viewpoint.

At present, the UOC offers its own certified courses and specializations that do not require any prior qualifications or official certificates. Even so, "the Catalan university system, including the UOC, has reflected on ways of guaranteeing compliance with admission requirements without having supporting documentation, although it is still an unresolved issue", Guinovart explains. The welcome programme has been developed collaboratively among all the teams involved, she adds. "This has allowed professional involvement by the whole University."

The programme in figures

Sixty-one refugees have taken part in the UOC's scholarship programme, including eighteen women. At present, the third call is open for submitting applications, which will offer thirty scholarships to asylum-seekers, stateless people and refugees.

In the first call, most of the scholarship holders came from Syria. In the second call, scholarships were awarded to people with eleven different nationalities: Angola, Cameroon, Colombia, Ivory Coast, El Salvador, Mali, Western Sahara, Syria, Somalia, Ukraine and Mozambique. The age of the people who have been given scholarships ranges between 26 and 30 and more than half hold university degrees.

What more can the universities do?

Beyond individual actions, such as the scholarship programme, the Spanish and Catalan universities have organized themselves into different groups to give a coordinated response to the challenges involved in receiving refugees. The UOC currently chairs the CRUE's Cooperation working group, in which nationwide action lines are developed for refugees. Within Catalonia, the Catalan Public University Association has formed the Universitat Refugi group, a space that promotes joint actions among Catalan universities.

On an international level, various organizations are working to foster a refugee-friendly culture and an engaged university community. Amnesty International, for example, proposes five actions that schools and universities can do to welcome refugees. Scholars at Risk works with universities around the world to protect persecuted academics and defend freedom of thought and speech. We are a welcoming Europe is a European-wide citizen initiative whose goal is to change European policies on migration and refugee-related issues. Citizens of Member States can join it by signing here.