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Emergency Student Fund for Syrian Refugees�(From Camps to Campus)

A Pilot Scholarship Project for Syrian Refugees to Study at Jordanian Public Universities

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The Institute of International Education’s Response to the Syrian Crisis

The Institute of International Education (IIE) has developed several programs in

response to the higher education emergency in Syria, providing assistance to

more than 400 Syrian faculty and university students:

Emergency Student Fund for Syrian Refugees in Jordan.
IIE Emergency Student Fund (ESF) for Syrian Students on U.S. Campuses.
IIE Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF) fellowships for close to 125 Syrian academics to continue their academic work outside Syria.
Original research focused on increasing Syrian refugee access to higher education in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey.
IIE Syria Consortium for Higher Education in Crisis, which engages universities and other partners around the world to provide scholarships to Syrian students (To date, the Consortium has provided scholarship funding to over 150 Syrian students).

Original Idea

The original idea was to help refugee students access higher

education, to get university degrees, with the following eligibility

criteria:

Reside within refugee camps in Jordan; hence the name “From Camps to Campus”.
Students’ higher education has been interrupted, due to the crisis in their country.
Completed at least two years of study, in Syria or elsewhere.
Studying in fields that are important to refugee response within camps, and rebuilding Syria.

Challenges Faced

Difficulties in securing exit permits for refugee students to leave the camps.
Camp students’ lack of documentation (university transcripts, expired passports, lack of passports and IDs).
Different higher education system in Syrian universities, which negatively affected credit transfer to Jordanian universities.
Difficulties and delays in communicating with some governmental entities, who were relied on to facilitate the process.

New Model

Due to faced challenges and tremendous need, focus shifted to urban refugee students:

These students are most likely to graduate, because they have already overcome enrollment barriers.
This new idea is modeled on IIE’s ESF.

Application

Qualifications:

Currently enrolled in Jordanian public universities.
Registered as refugees with UNHCR.
Have completed at least three semesters in Syria, Jordan, or another country.
Plan to major in fields useful to the Syrian refugee community, such as education, social work, and psychology.
Have a proven track record of community service and committed to community service upon completion of a university degree.
Demonstrate financial need.

Selection

Of 140 applicants, 6 students were selected (3 male and 3 female students), who are:

As of September 2015, these six students were granted emergency funds/scholarships.
We plan to offer funds for disadvantaged Jordanian students.

Best Practices/Lessons Learned

Support the host community.
Need for university support and buy-in.
Need to work closer with partner universities, so they are aware of the project, support the idea, and offer reduced fees (as opposed to international fees).
Need for flexibility: mold the idea based on the situation

Next Steps

Pilot project: testing a model.
Need to expand this model to support more eligible students, who were declined due to limited funds.
Easy model for donors to implement (simple and effective).

Q&A / Thank You!

Celine Taminian

Special Advisor

Institute of International Education (IIE)