University aims to educate 50,000 refugees by 2022

Inspired by the success of a Southern New Hampshire University programme that allows hundreds of refugees in Rwanda to access its courses, a group of anonymous donors approached its president with a challenge: What would it take to educate 50,000 refugees each year? The president, Paul LeBlanc, was intrigued, writes Michael Casey for Associated Press.

After some discussion, the donors agreed last month to provide US$10 million to the university so it can study whether its programme offering associate and bachelor degrees at a Kiziba refugee camp and a Kigali facility could be replicated. Most of the 300 students are on pace to graduate, and almost all are getting job or internship offers.

The concept of a university for the displaced comes as the world’s refugee crisis reaches levels not seen since World War II. The United Nations’ refugee agency reports that 65.3 million people were forced to leave their homelands in 2016. Many refugees languish in squalid camps that sometimes lack the basics of life – clean water and sufficient food – and where a higher education is little more than a dream.
Full report on The Washington Post site