The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) released its 2019 report, drawing on expertise across sectors to make recommendations for the integration of displaced students and scholars into higher education. In their article “Scholar Perspectives,” co-authors Dr. Chelsea Blackburn Cohen of Scholars at Risk and IIE-SRF Director James R. King explore the issues of academic freedom and higher education emergencies, sharing best practices for supporting displaced and threatened scholars.
In IIE's Centennial Issue of the IIE Networker, IIE-SRF staff address the unprecedented forced migration crisis that is signficantly impacting global higher education. They explain, "We are committed to remaining a beacon of hope for vulnerable scholars, so that their life’s work, and their lives, are not lost."
The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) released the latest edition of their quarterly newsletter, which focuses on the ever-growing issue of displaced scientists. For the newsletter, IIE-SRF Assistant Director James King authored “An ‘Unprecedented’ Exodus of Scholars,” elaborating on the effects of war and authoritarianism on researchers, particularly in the Global South.
In the October 2017 edition of the UNESCO Courier, IIE-SRF Director Sarah Willcox provides historical perspective and a context for today’s scholar rescue in her article titled, “Refugee Scientists: Quiet Pioneers Dedicated to Discovery.” According to the article, among the 30,000 people forced to leave their homes every day due to conflict and persecution are renowned scientists and scholars. International programs are working to ensure that these scholars are able to continue educating students and producing world-class scholarship. Sarah writes that IIE-SRF “is now among a handful of formalized programs that provide essential support for threatened academics. But there is so much more to be done to ensure that the world’s intellectual capital will seed innovation and discovery for generations to come.”
The Spring 2017 issue of IIE's Networker magazine is now online, featuring the work of IIE team members as they join with partners around the world to expand international opportunities for all. IIE-SRF Director Sarah Willcox, in her article entitled Seeking Safe Havens: National Responses to Scholar Persecution, provides an important overview of the program from its inception to present day, noting particularly the steps that countries are taking to keep their doors open as safe havens to scholars duing times of uncertainty.
New Research Voices (NRV) is a community platform for researchers to share their work, opinions, and ideas with other researchers from around the globe. In this issue, IIE-SRF alumni of Iran Dr. Arash Alaei and Dr. Kamiar Alaei discuss the online medical education course program they created for displaced Syrian scholars. Their story, titled "Medical Education for Vulnerable Students Worldwide. Hope from Albany to Aleppo" discusses how they collaborated with their host institution, the University of Albany, State University of New York (SUNY Albany), to develop a program that promotes access to higher education.
The Syrian and Iraqi higher education sectors and the lives of their researchers and students have been upended due to conflict and war. In oppressive regimes, the academic pursuit of knowledge is commonly seen as a threat. These at-risk individuals often have a lot to contribute to human intellectual advancement. In Finland, among much discussion on the issue of refugees, a novel partnership is connecting some of these individuals to higher education institutions that can host them.
New Research Voices (NRV) is a community platform for researchers to share their work, opinions, and ideas with other researchers from around the globe. In this issue, which features an interview with IIE-SRF's Assistant Director James King, articles by several IIE-SRF Syrian fellows explore what it means to be academics in exile and share the research that they hope to continue now that they have reached safe havens.
New Research Voices (NRV) is a community platform for researchers to share their work, opinions, and ideas with other researchers from around the globe. In this inaugural issue, NRV features contributors who “have all faced persecution for their work and have sought sanctuary at universities overseas where they continue, despite the many obstacles they have faced, to strive for a better world through their academic endeavors.” Including articles by IIE-SRF fellows from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Syria, the issue explores academic freedom in sites of oppression and the ordeals faced by scholars violently driven out of their native countries.
Al-Fanar Media in partnership with the Institute of International Education and the Dutch NGO SPARK hosted a workshop to address the needs of University-age Syrian refugees. The workshop, "Delivering Higher Education to Syrian Refugees," took place in Istanbul, Turkey on October 6 and 7, 2015. The event brought together stakeholders from regional and international governments, UN bodies, local and international NGOs, universities, and Syrian students and professors, to share best practices and enhance coordination amongst initiatives that are supporting Syrian access to higher education.
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