World Refugee Day: A day to share solidarity for the coercively displaced

“This not about sharing a burden. It is about sharing a global responsibility, based not only the broad idea of our common humanity but also on the very specific obligations of international law.”[1] — UN Secretary-General, António Guterres.

What is World Refugee Day?

June 20th is World Refugee Day, a day which emphasizes the global responsibility to support and aid refugees that have been forcibly displaced from their homes. This day is where the world joins together to commemorate the strength, courage and perseverance of millions of refugees.

World Refugee Day gives the global community an opportunity to show their support and stand in solidarity. With over 14,000 students from over 200 countries and territories, we launched a #WithRefugees campaign where our students shared videos and pictures of themselves, showing their support for their fellow students and refugees around the world. We asked our students to share their videos and pictures on social media and add a fact they thought was important (note our infographic below).

It’s important to remember not only to show our support for refugees on World Refugee Day, but to show our support for refugees everyday. University of the People has over 1,000 refugee students – more than any other university in the world. Empowering these students – half of whom are from Syria and half of whom have fled abroad, is one of the initiatives we are most proud of, our Syrian Refugee Initiative. Our students may have lost their homes and belongings – but they never lost their dedication to pursue higher education.

As part of a global university, it’s our social responsibility to help refugees go from surviving to thriving. It is our duty to stress the urgency to transcend refugees from a past of stagnation into an asset not only to benefit their future but also ours through the development of higher education. President Reshef gives an TEDxBerlin talk on Refugees- Moving from Surviving to Thriving that you can watch here

The Refugee Crisis

To note, the refugee crisis is at a record high of 65.6 million displaced people, and only less than 10% of refugees worldwide have access to higher education. A big reason for this is simply due to unaffordable tuition costs. US government spending does not prioritize funding for refugee education which inhibits their ability to properly acclimate into society and build sustainable fruitful livelihoods. The UN Refugee Agency article entitled “UNHCR Global Trends – Forced Displacement in 2016,” highlights that only 1% of refugee youth attends universities compared that to 36% globally.

As such, to effectively integrate refugees into a collective society we must provide proper access to forms of higher education. Unfortunately, higher education has become unattainable to the marginalized due to extremely high tuition costs, allowing benefits for the merely the few instead of a necessity for all.

Helping Refugees Help Themselves

Online education is affordable and accessible, allowing qualified students to improve their future. Educating refugees not only provides the essential foundation to pursue stable careers and self-sufficiency to where they have migrated, but additionally facilitates the tools necessary to rebuild the security of their homeland. With the generous assistance of donors, UoPeople has established institutions such as the Emergency Refugee Scholarship and the Small Giants Scholarship Fund. These two resources provide access to education to hundreds of refugees and asylum-seekers from Syria, Myanmar, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria and many other countries.

Watch President Reshef’s plan to help refugees help themselves in his TED Talk here.

On World Refugee Day and every other day, we stand in solidary and support our students and refugees around the world. We would like to dedicate this blog post to our 1,000 + refugee students – who have overcome unimaginable challenges to pursue their education. We are privileged to provide them with that opportunity, and we are indebted to them for the inspiration they provide us every year.

Source :

[1] “Refugees, UNHCR, Displaced, Migrants, Migration, Asylum, Human Rights.” United Nations, United Nations, www.un.org/en/events/refugeeday/index.shtml.