Student activism plays an important part in raising awareness on refugee issues and providing direct support to refugees. This page provides examples of student-led initiatives on education and refugees, including refugee mentoring projects, other education assistance programmes and campaigns aimed at expanding the educational opportunities for refugees.

STUDENT NETWORKS & STUDENT CAMPAIGNS

• STAR is the national network of student groups working to improve the lives of refugees in the UK by promoting positive images of refugees, volunteering for local refugee projects, and campaigning for refugees.  STAR student groups are independently constituted student union societies, based at universities all over the UK - http://www.star-network.org.uk/
• The STAR ‘Equal Access’ campaign by the student network aims to ensure that people seeking protection in the UK have equal access to higher education. A number of universities have already adopted ‘Equal Access’ including Manchester, Leeds and Royal Holloway.  An Equal Access campaign guide can be downloaded from http://www.star-network.org.uk/images/uploads/documents/Equal_Access_Guide2012.pdf
• The Norwegian Students and Academics’ International Assistance Fund (SAIH) is the solidarity organisation of students and academics in Norway. SAIH focuses on education in development cooperation, as well as North/South information and political advocacy in Norway http://www.saih.no/English/index.html

MENTORING SCHEMES & LANGUAGE EXCHANGE PROGRAMMES

• An academic mentoring scheme initiated by the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA) creates a pool of voluntary academic advisors to provide appropriate guidance and advice to refugee academics http://www.academic-refugees.org/what-is-your-subject-area.asp
• Sheffield University in the UK has teamed up with the City of Sanctuary (a movement to build a culture of hospitality for people seeking sanctuary in the UK) to launch a new project linking Francophone refugees with French language students. The ‘Tandem’ project acts as a bridge between the university and the refugee community while enabling undergraduates to practise their language skills with native French speakers http://www.cityofsanctuary.org/news/1875/tandem-project-launched
• A mentoring programme at Aarhus University, Business & Social Sciences in Denmark involves alumni mentoring masters students, with the aim of facilitating the integration of refugees, immigrants and foreign students at the university http://www.asb.dk/fileadmin/www.asb.dk/tilstuderende/karrierecenter/asbmentor/AU_Mentor_e-material_2011-12.pdf
• ‘The Coalition for Refugee Resettlement’ is a partnership between university students and refugee community organisations in Roanoke.  Virginia Tech students are engaged as English language tutors, homework helpers and citizenship teachers.  Formal classes supplement volunteer programs and capacity-building projects http://www.engage.vt.edu/crr/
• The ‘Refugee Mentoring Program’ at Macquarie University, Sydney, involves volunteer student mentors, who provide weekly mentoring support to high school students from refugee backgrounds with the aim of raising students’ aspirations for further education https://www.mq.edu.au/socialinclusion/leap/projects/mentoring.html
• Various universities in Australia participate in the ‘Refugee Action Support’ programme of the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation. Students from participating universities act as literacy tutors one-on-one and in small group settings, and have the opportunity to gain course credits while working with primary and high school students https://alnf.org/Pages/programs/refugee-action-support