Developing DIGital skills and tools for better inclusion of refugees and ImmigranTs (DIGiT)

Background

For the past years, access to higher education for refugees has been a critical topic in the European context. Refugees can face many barriers to accessing higher education, including a lack of information, advice and individual guidance sensitive to their specific needs, inadequate provision of intensive language courses for academic purposes, and restricted access to government student finance schemes. Research with refugees and the experiences of service providers indicate that, amongst refugees who have completed secondary school, there is strong desire to attend university. However, refugee access to higher education remains limited – opportunities for refugees in countries of first asylum to pursue higher education are scarce, and the educational and professional needs of higher educated refugees do not play a prominent role in resettlement programs. At the same time, both asylum seekers and refugees face problems in integrating into the labour market in most Member States due to a lack of necessary skills and qualifications (EEPO Refugees synthesis report). Today, European teaching staff is insufficiently prepared and trained to deal with diverse classroom settings.

Objectives

To build digital education readiness among adult refugees/immigrants, and to develop digital pedagogical competencies of higher educators.