Saïd Foundation
© UNHCR /Ed Ou
The Saïd Foundation works to make a positive and lasting impact on the lives of young people, and in partnership with UNHCR, has been supporting higher education for Syrian refugees since 2011.
Building on a partnership that has enabled more than xxx refugees to access higher education, from 2016 one hundred Syrian refugee students will begin four year university courses in Jordan and Lebanon. The new cohort of students will join a further one hundred students from 2014 that are accessing university education through UNHCR’s DAFI programme, with thanks to the Saïd Foundation.
Despite their potential, refugees have fewer chances to access tertiary education than other young people. The main obstacles are disruption of academic advancement due to displacement, expensive university fees, and restrictive institutional policies such as access quotas, high fees and documentation requirements that Syrian refugees do not have or cannot obtain without facing protection risks. Some refugees also require support to acquire language skills to be able to study in the country of asylum.
And yet higher education enables refugees to develop leadership skills and play a greater role in community development. Tertiary education is vital in training the doctors, nurses, engineers of tomorrow to support reconstruction after conflict.
Thanks to a newly initiated program made possible by a generous support of the Saïd Foundation in 2014, refugee students received scholarships in Lebanon, and camp-based refugees in Jordan competed for scholarships with urban candidates to study at Jordanian universities. The new partnership with the Saïd Foundation has yielded a commendable success in responding to needs and raising awareness of the unmet needs for tertiary education that Syrian refugees face.
