What Next? Strategic Role of European Universities in The Syrian Refugee Crisis: Lessons from Poland and Austria

Author(s):

Daniel Kontowski(presenting / submitting)Madelaine Leitsberger(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 04 D, Governance, Diversity & Inclusion

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-24

09:00-10:30

Room:

NM-J104

Chair:

Rosemary Deem

Contribution

In order to meet the multi-faceted challenges of the massive inflow of refuges to the EU, higher education institutions might begin to play a more strategic role (Campaign for the Public University, 2015; European University Association, 2015) for social inclusion as well as the development of the incoming human capital (Altbach & de Wit, 2015).

Higher education institutions address the refugee crisis because of seven reasons: humanitarian responsibilities, contribution to the individual wellbeing of refugees (e.g. overcoming trauma), resilience to extremism, economic incentives, political responsibilities, socio-cultural arguments, and civic integration.

While humanitarian reasons prevail the discourse, other arguments – especially the economic reason (refugees as potential contributors to our society) – are more likely to induce action beyond immediate aid to a long term development approach from higher education institutions (Cremonini & Fanner, 2016). We argue that such a long term approach needs to focus on integration.

We adapted Ager and Strang’s (2008) framework of successful integration for the specific conditions in higher education. The framework focuses on the facilitators and social connections needed to make higher education more inclusive and accessible for refugees. Facilitators include language and cultural knowledge, recognition of prior learning and facilitated admission procedures (especially when refugees lack recognised documents), academic preparation (introduction to a different HE system), financial resources (through fee waivers, stipends, employment), and accommodation. Social connections are an important source of informal learning opportunities for knowledge and skills in the host country; they are a major driver for local integration. Universities can provide social connections through buddy systems/mentoring, student services or through platforms which enable refugees to help other refugees.

Our presentation builds on the assumption that only a holistic approach to the refugee situation can deliver the best results for countries, institutions and the refugees themselves. Therefore, we propose an assessment of the existing practices in Austria and Poland from two perspectives:

1) In the first perspective we will examine how universities help refugees. A holistic approach is understood as relating different kinds of support, covering all relevant areas so as to ultimately advance the overall aim of academic achievement, employability and social inclusion of the refugees.

2) The second perspective, that has not yet been adequately acknowledged by universities, focuses on how refugees can and should influence universities. Here a holistic approach would include adaptations and extensions based on the refugees’ background, making campus culture truly inclusive, further internationalization and improving the research base of the institution and quality of instruction.

In assessing current practices and suggesting new actions to be taken in the future, one should not turn a blind eye to the challenges: not only those covered by press in both countries that often tend to be exaggerated to suit the negative general public, but also largely unnoticed issues as lack of gender balance in some age groups, asylum policy postponing the integrative effect of higher education, language barriers in advanced studies or the issue of selectivity. In both Austria and Poland some of those can already be predicted, and remedial policies should be adopted in advance by the institutions. Vigorous leadership within the institution and educational policy changes should both work towards reframing the refugee challenge into an opportunity.

Method

Across Europe, institutions in some countries were remarkably responsive despite not being incentivised by the government and despite anti-refugee sentiments. This category includes Poland and Austria – two countries we choose to assess and compare. Austria is a major transit country but also received a considerable amount of asylum applications (90.000 in 2015 compared to 28.000 in 2014). Poland has yet to admit its first refugees to a largely monocultural society. Both countries are struggling with strong anti-refugee sentiments in the society, but interestingly, their public universities decided to take complex action already in September 2015. Polish and Austrian rectors’ conferences were highly successful in bringing the issue to the attention of more than 20 institutions in each country (Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland, 2015b; uniko (Der Verein “Österreichische Universitätenkonferenz”), 2015). While individual initiatives were declared across Polish higher education, Austria adopted a coordinated approach for almost all public universities. There are, however, significant differences among institutions in the rationale, scope and visibility of the support in both countries. Our assessment draws from English-, Austrian- and Polish- documentary sources such as institutional internet resources (international organizations and university websites and official social media channels) as well as literature of the subject (newspaper, magazine and journal articles). Where appropriate, sources in other languages and covering different European countries were consulted for comparative reasons. The research was further supplemented by communication via e-mail and phone with the universities and university organizations in April 2016. All supporting institutions were asked to provide answers to short questionnaires regarding the implementation of initiatives declared in autumn 2015, including the number of students involved and their own perceived success and difficulties of support. For Austria, all 21 public universities and the Austrian rectors’ conference were contacted with a response rate of 77%. For Poland, 23 institutions were contacted, with a response rate of 67%. Additionally, relevant ministries, rectors’ conferences and offices of international organizations dealing with the issues have been consulted.

Expected Outcomes

In Poland, 40 institutions declared support for at least 250 refugees in HE. Eight big universities declared a fairly holistic support including fee waivers, accommodation and/or scholarship.Some universities of applied sciences and private institutions, engaged in initiatives with immediate effect, including workshops in refugee camps or Erasmus+ programmes. One important feature of the Polish response to the refugee crisis is limited experience with international students (not to mention the refugees). It adds difficulties to questions of who, when and how refugees should be supported. One telling example is that the cited number of 250 is a result of combining three independent databases of institutional declarations (internal list of the ministry, KRASP list from October and EUA refugees welcome initiative); only two institutions appear on all of them. A refugee status anxiety, qualification anxiety and general distrust that Poland is going to be chosen by any refugee as a place of study, overshadow the possible support. Moreover, recent political changes in the government and rectors elections of 2016 are likely to affect implementation once (and if) larger numbers of refugees will arrive to Poland. The Austrian rectors’ conference launched an initiative called MORE which prepares refugees for a degree-granting programme through predominantly German language courses, academic preparation and buddy systems. 740 refugees were enrolled during winter term 2015. The Austrian rectors’ conference provided guidance for all public institutions. Eventually, the institutions themselves decide which courses and facilitated admission procedures are most suitable for the study programmes they offer. Coordinators of each university attend regular meetings to further improve the programme and share experience. The Austrian example reinforces the call for more communication and cooperation between universities (potentially beyond boarders) to be as inclusive as possible. While the initiative proved to be efficient, its sustainability is called into question.

References

Altbach, P. G., & de Wit, H. (2015). The Syrian refugee crisis – What can universities do? University World News, (382). Retrieved from http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20150918113842639 Campaign for the Public University. (2015). A Call on UK Universities to provide Scholarships and Bursaries to those seeking Refuge (22.09.2015). Retrieved November 22, 2015, from http://publicuniversity.org.uk/2015/09/22/a-call-on-uk-universities-to-provide-scholarships-and-bursaries-to-those-seeking-refuge/ Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland. (2015a). Apel Prezydium KRASP o przeciwstawianie się mowie nienawiści (15.10.2015). Retrieved November 22, 2015, from http://www.krasp.org.pl/pliki/6fa4e3644a3d1ffcad66f1849c4b07da.pdf Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland. (2015b). INICJATYWY UCZELNI DOTYCZĄCE UCHODŹCÓW / stan na 27.10, godz. 12:00. Retrieved November 22, 2015, from http://www.krasp.org.pl/pliki/432f8658b223c1a72388578c3a3af5da.pdf De Witt, H. (2009). Internationalization of higher education in the United States of America and Europe. IAP. European University Association. (2015). European Universities’ response to the refugee crisis (26.09.2015). Hochschulrektorenkonferenz. (2015). Universities for openness, tolerance and against xenophobia. Retrieved November 22, 2015, from http://www.hrk.de/home/universities-against-xenophobia/ Kontowski, D. (2016a). Polish universities respond to the refugee crisis. Inside Higher Ed. Kontowski, D. (2016b, January 6). Uchodźcy na polskie studia? Tak, ale... Dziennik Opinii. Krytyka Polityczna. Retrieved from http://www.krytykapolityczna.pl/artykuly/edukacja/20160105/uchodzcy-na-studia-tak-ale SwissUniversities. (2015). swissuniversities setzt sich für einen angepassten Hochschulzugang für Flüchtlinge ein (17.09.2015). Retrieved November 22, 2015, from http://www.swissuniversities.ch/de/news/news-detail/news/detail/News/swissuniversities-setzt-sich-fuer-einen-angepassten-hochschulzugang-fuer-fluechtlinge-ein/ uniko (Der Verein “Österreichische Universitätenkonferenz”). (2015). MORE - Flüchtlingsinitiative der Universitäten. Retrieved December 20, 2015, from http://uniko.ac.at/projekte/more/ Vědci proti strachu a lhostejnosti. (2015). Retrieved November 22, 2015, from http://www.vyzvavedcu.cz/

Author Information

Daniel Kontowski (presenting / submitting)

University of Winchester, UK; University of Warsaw, Poland

Madelaine Leitsberger (presenting)

University of Winchester

Centre for Animal Welfare

Winchester

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