“We don’t call them refugees, they’re guest students,” said Tanushree Kaushal, co-chair of the student council, as she explained the need to minimalize differences among students in the Right2Education concept.

Right2Education

Right2Education is an initiative of Amsterdam University College, the honours college for the VU Amsterdam and the University of Amsterdam. Since November, students, faculty, management and administrative personnel have been working together to provide an educational opportunity for potential students from countries in crisis.

AUC’s motto is “Excellence and Diversity in a Global City” and the seven-year-old liberal arts and sciences university college sees itself as uniquely situated to meet the needs of guest students because of its small class size, English language and international student body.

“The guest students provide us with value,” said Dr. Sennay Ghebraeb, Head of Studies, Social Sciences. AUC’s commitment to community work and diversity are an inherent part of the curriculum. The refugee opportunity only adds to this.

Access to learning

On 19 November, management and faculty issued a statement on the AUC website.

The previous evening, on 18 November, a Who’s in Town (an open lecture) took place, called: The Refugee Opportunity: Volunteer Voices tell what civil society can do when states and NGOs reach their limits. Over 100 students attended the event, which featured the stories of three AUC students who worked on the Serbian border with refugees during the third week of October as part of a project for their Human Rights Human Security class. These students were joined by a few of the refugee volunteers they worked within Serbia, who had in the meantime made their way to the Netherlands.

“After that, ideas just started snowballing as management, faculty and students all started looking for ways to give refugees access to learning,” said Anne de Graaf, who teaches the Human Rights class.

Working on a very tight timeline, students, faculty and management put together a plan to open the January intensive Dutch language courses to guest students in a pilot project. The municipality identified 33 refugees between 18 and 28 who spoke English and were interested. Of these 33, ten were admitted to the regular Dutch A1 classes, while the other 23 were taught by Dutch native-speaker AUC students.

AUC student Els van Dam taught these student-teachers, writing lesson plans and working closely with the Dutch lecturers.  “Basically you find out that someone you thought was really different, is really not so different than you, by emphasising the things that you have in common, such as studying.”

Pilot project

The January Dutch-language classes went extremely well. Guest students increased their Dutch-language skills and a third of the AUC student body participated in activities such as cooking meals, tutoring during the homework sessions, teaching and acting as a “buddy.” Students also took them on social outings, including a hilarious ice-skating afternoon.

When the 16-week semester began in February, ten of the original 33 were accepted in a pilot project to audit classes such as International Relations Theory and Practice, Advanced Programming, Statistics for Sciences and Introduction to Geological Sciences. The choice of class depended on the guest students’ own interests and backgrounds.

Lecturers say the guest students provide valuable contributions and do so well because they are extremely motivated. Often the stories of what the guest students have endured add a new dimension to the study of conflict.

“Not only did the initiative bring the refugees closer to where they want to be, but we have also seen that the AUC community opened its arms and provided a warm welcome for those not at home. After just one month it has effectively bridged the gap between outsiders and insiders,” said Ellen Ackroyd, AUC student.

Abdullah Nashef, from Aleppo, Syria, who audits the Statistics for Sciences class, said education is the most important thing for him. “I lost five years of my life. This is the last chance for me, if I can’t, I’m nothing.”

According to AUC student Andrea Haefner, “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights grants everyone the right to education. We work towards universal adoption of this right in the Netherlands through the inclusion of refugees. We believe that especially those who were forced to flee their homes are in need of access to this inviolable right. Moreover, we think that education is above all the key to successful integration into Dutch society.”

What’s next?

Due to the success of classes in January, the pilot project is continuing in February and March with student-taught Dutch classes for 22 new guest students, bringing the total guest students helped in three months to 55. Additionally, plans are underway for a student-taught Dutch A2 course as a follow-up starting in April.

Guest students receive a certificate for their participation in AUC classes. This demonstrates their ability to function well in an academic environment and their willingness to study. The first certificate celebration takes place on Wednesday, 24 February from 16.00-18.00 at AUC.

Dr. Ramon Puras, Acting Dean when the initiative began, said, “This initiative is good for the guest students, but it’s proven to impact our own students in exceptional ways as well.”

Please contact Michael Vermeer at refugee@auc.nl for more details and any questions.