RESCUE: An International Response to Forced Mobility of Students Prof. Dr. Celal Nazım İrem Istanbul Aydın University Dean, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Chair, UNESCO Chair on Cultural Diplomacy, Governance and Education
Syrian Conflict and Refugee Crisis An estimated 11 million Syrians have fled their homes since the outbreak of the civil war in March 2011. Now, in the sixth year of war, 13.5 million are in need of humanitarian assistance within the country. Among those escaping the conflict, the majority have sought refuge in neighbouring countries or within Syria itself. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 4.8 million have fled to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq, and 6.6 million are internally displaced within Syria. Meanwhile about one million have requested asylum to Europe. Germany, with more than 300,000 cumulated applications, and Sweden with 100,000, are EU s top receiving countries.
Each host country has taken a different approach to the refugees. In Turkey, for example, all official refugees are housed in government-sponsored camps. In Lebanon, there are no camps; refugees simply live alongside the locals. Likewise, there is a wide disparity in aid resources. While Jordan has received significant financial and other assistance from the UN and foreign governments, the Turkish government is funding numerous camps on its own. Regardless, all three countries face a tremendous and growing strain on resources from healthcare and education to water and housing.
Besides those attempts to include refugee students to the national educational systems specific programs are also set up to address the needs of refugee schoolchildren such as A) After-school programs with Syrian curriculum and Syrian Arabicspeaking instructors OR B) To address the needs of students who have been out of school for a long time, shortened school day programs are set up with academic and mental health components OR C) Syrian or other Arab teachers are trained to provide academic remediation to refugee children
Today, I will introduce you an international effort led by UNIMED (Mediterranean Universities Union) and AAU (Association of Arab Universities) in partnership with 8 universities from Jordan, Lebanon and Northern Iraq and 4 from Germany, Spain, Italy and Turkey, including Istanbul Aydın University. This international effort is financed as an ERASMUS Project and named Refugee Education Support in Mena Countries, shortly RESCUE.
Objective, Rationale and the Designed Tool Main objective is to help Jordanian, Lebanese and Iraqi (Northern Iraq, Kurdistan Regional Administration) Universities in structuring an effective response to refugees crisis. Rationale: is a belief in the right to education as a human right to be guaranteed to all people The tool selected for this purpose is to create a functional unit and it is named the Refugee Student Operational Support Unit R-SOS - which will provide local Universities a fundamental tool in order to structure specific services supporting the refugee students in resuming their academic or training path.
Problem: The partner countries involved in this proposal, namely Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq (but also some of the Programme Countries involved, such as Turkey and Germany) are experiencing a very critical situation due to the high number of refugees present on their territory: most of these are Syrian citizens, and include a high percentage of former University students who had to interrupt their academic curriculum. The main specific objective of RESCUE is to help the Partner Country Universities in structuring an effective response to this problem, by creating ad hoc units (the Refugee Student Operational Support Unit R-SOS), whose mission is to structure specific services supporting the refugee students in resuming their academic training path. The analysis carried out by the target Universities has shown that each one of them has different approaches and constraints vis-à-vis this problem, therefore ad hoc solutions must be implemented in each one of them.
Planned Functions: Once the R-SOS units will be operational, the services they will deliver will help the refugee students in resuming their academic training path, in some cases by accessing the standard curricula on the same basis as all the other students, in some other cases by following ad hoc training courses providing them with basic skills and competencies useful for employment purposes.
Expectation: It is expected that the setting up of the R-SOS units will help in improving the situation of the refugee student either by supporting them in getting a job in the hosting countries either in preparing them for returning to their origin country once the crisis is over.
What is Done? First Phase. A Need Analysis: Real needs of the partner Universities in terms of managing the refugees and in terms of suitable best practices to be transferred is determined. Best Practices were selected. Best practices suitable for being transferred to the involved partner countries were selected. The goal of this task is to analyze identified practices in both in Europe and in the partner countries and select (according to established criteria) the best practices to be transferred to the Partner Countries. Hence this task is structure into the following sub-tasks:
Second Phase: An Action Plan Was Developed Based on the selected best practices and matching these with the updated needs analysis a specific, tailor made action plan are made which was designed suited to the needs of each target University.
Fourth Phase: R-SOS Units are Launched In this Workpackage the R-SOS Units are launched and their operation is monitored and supported by the European experts in order to optimise the functioning. In this frame, al least one pilot course for each Unit is launched. Tasks T4.1 Support for the first months of activities of the R-SOS Units. This includes a phase of pilot operation testing the quality of service provided for refugee students. The different units operations are started up with the initial support the EU experts, initially in presence and then via the WEB. T4.2 Delivery of pilot courses for students. Whenever possible and foreseen by the action plan, pilot courses (including crash courses) for the refugees are launched and taught by a mix of EU and MENA teachers.
Fifth Phase: A Quality Plan is Made. A quality control system is set in order to perform the monitoring over the project so as to ensure that it proceeds towards the achievement of its objectives. Project monitoring provides information by which management can identify and solve implementation problems, and assess progress. The Logical Framework Matrix and the Workplan are basic documents for the quality control. A quality manager is appointed within the Consortium, whereas an external evaluator is engaged to provide an independent view.
Sixth Phase: Design of the dissemination strategy and tools This task includes the following activities: definition of the dissemination methodology and tools (including identification of major dissemination channels, such as public events, press, WEB, etc); definition of the selection criteria for choosing the dissemination opportunities; setting up the monitoring campaign; design of dissemination materials, including eventual video materials
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