Breaking Barriers Refugee Week 2025

1.00pm to 2.30pm, Teams Live online event

The sanctuary movement in the UK has historically been framed around the concept of welcome, and in University of Sanctuary contexts, this has often translated into opening doors for sanctuary seekers to access study opportunities in a supportive environment. This panel discussion will explore ways in which university communities might examine their wider, structural impact to enable them to move beyond this construct of welcome and towards embedding solidarity into their sanctuary activity.

Register for Beyond Welcome: Sanctuary and Solidarity

1.30pm to 3.00pm, Teams Live online event

Since 2018, the University of Leicester has offered a fee waiver award for their distance learning programmes, providing access to postgraduate taught education to people who have experienced barriers to education due to forced displacement or political persecution. In this workshop, staff who have been involved with teaching and supporting distance learning sanctuary students will discuss the lessons learned by the University of Leicester since they established these awards.

Whilst there are many international organisations who provide emergency education specifically designed for students in crisis or vulnerable situations, Leicester offered places on relatively small, ‘mainstream’ distance learning programmes. It has been a sharp learning curve. Leicester’s experience has made clear the value and the limits that mainstream university distance learning programmes can contribute to refugee and crisis education.

Register for distance learning Sanctuary scholarships event

1.00pm to 2.15pm, Teams Live online event

Following on from last year’s event ‘How can UK universities support Higher Education in Palestine?’, we will reflect on our progress and learning in this field over the past year, and our plans going forward. Some of the initiatives we will outline include: various scholarship schemes, some of which were mediated via partner organisations such as the Gaza Scholarship Initiative; the Displaced Student Initiative, which is a ‘Study Abroad’ style scheme for medical students; CARA fellowships; and putting on events to explore ways in which UK HE can provide support. Get further information about the initiatives.

1.00pm to 2.00pm, in-person event 

Ros Henwood, Chaplain for international students at the University of Leicester, will be running a special Refugee Week Breaking Barriers quiz open to all Leicester students as part of the Chaplaincy’s weekly Welcome on Wednesdays. No need to sign up, just turn up at the Gatehouse on the day. Meet new people, grab a slice of pizza and a cuppa, learn and share!

2.00pm to 3.15pm, Teams Live online event

On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine; beginning a war that continues to this day. People and institutions in the UK rallied to support Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in a variety of ways and they continue to do so. This session will look at the ways in which two universities – Leicester and King’s College London - have offered support, and consider what we can do to help individuals and institutions in the Higher Education sector and beyond. Participants will include those who have been involved in offering support as well as Ukrainian students, staff and universities.

Register for Ukraine Support: Three years on

12.00pm to 2.00pm, Teams Live online event

‘I don’t like them to know I’m Syrian’: Family language policy amongst Syrian refugees in Turkey – Dr Mohammed Ateek, University of Leicester

This study investigates an emerging area of inquiry: refugee family language policy (FLP), through examining the practices, management and ideologies of FLP among Syrian refugee families in Turkey. It also examines the multilingualism of the children and their parents’ attitudes towards languages, focusing on heritage language maintenance (HLM). The study aims to understand how Syrian refugee families in Turkey construct, negotiate and implement their FLP. Applying a qualitative approach, the study employed semi-structured interviews with ten families and language portraits coloured by seven children. Language portraits were used as a tool to make children’s multilingualism visible by using colours to present their linguistic repertoire. Thematic analysis using a coding scheme was used to analyse the data. The findings revealed different views by parents and children about language practices, management and ideologies.

Dr Mohammed Ateek is a Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the University of Leicester. Mohammed's main areas of interest are language and migration, language and theories and practice of TESOL. He also researches the role of language in refugee/migrant education and how it facilitates social cohesion in hostile environments. He worked as a consultant for the UK Home Office Refugee Employability Programme and the British Council ‘Language for Resilience’ project. Prior to joining Leicester, Mohammed worked at Birkbeck, University of London and University of Reading.

Navigating the “Climate Refugee” Nomenclature: How to Explain Displacement in an Ever-changing Environment? – Carla Field, University of Leicester

The climate refugee or environmental refugee terminology has been in regular use since the 1980s. It finds its way into both critical academia as well as mainstream media to describe those persons forced to move either internally (within their State) or externally (across borders) to find safety from environmental-based harms. But how useful is this terminology for describing the movements of persons escaping environmental damage, and, importantly, how legally appropriate? This talk will address some of the background developments of the climate refugee nomenclature and the popularisation of its use before discussing the legal “appropriateness” of this terminology. Finally, the discussion will briefly address some new approaches, taking an inclusive lens, to perhaps make us question the usefulness of this terminology as a tool for change.

Carla Field is a current PhD student at the University of Leicester School of Law. Her research focuses on the issue of environmental-based cross-border displacement and the legal implication of protection available to those seeking sanctuary from climate harms. Carla is a UOL graduate, obtaining her LLM in 2020, and has experience working with individuals with lived experience of displacement through her work with the British Red Cross. Read her most recent open-access publication on the issue of environmental displacement.

Refugee Background Students - Access and Participation in UK Higher Education – James Moran, University of Westminster

Framed within discussions of access and participation, this session shares preliminary findings from ongoing PhD research that gives voice to experiences of Refugee Background Students (RBS) and staff members in UK Higher Education. The research examines the experiences of RBS in accessing and progressing through Higher Education, alongside insights from practitioners working in areas such as access and participation, Sanctuary schemes, and student wellbeing. By addressing current challenges and opportunities identified from the research, the session explores how institutions can better support the access and progression of RBS within UK Higher Education.

Before moving into academia, James Moran worked first as an Immigration Adviser and then International Student and Welfare Adviser, enabling him to work with a diverse range of clients and students from all round the world. Now, as a Senior Lecturer in Curriculum Design at the University of Westminster, James teaches on the PgCert in Higher Education, supports embedding of strategic priorities around Embedding EDI and Education for Sustainable Development in curricula and is responsible for the intensive course design process. Research interests include: curriculum design; experiences of Refugee Background Students in UK HE; widening participation in HE; international student experience of HE; and wellbeing of teaching staff.