Refugee students in higher education are still a minority

World Refugee Day on 20 June presented an opportunity to assess the progress made in Rwanda towards facilitating access to higher education on the part of the country’s refugee populations.

Gentille Dusenge was only two when her family and thousands of other Congolese nationals were forced to flee their country due to civil war and were settled in Kiziba refugee camp in Rwanda’s western province. Her parents had little hope she could access basic education, let alone higher learning. Now a 27-year-old mother of one child, she is completing her final year in health care management with a focus on global perspectives.

“I was two years when my family was displaced. I grew up in the refugee camp and life was not easy,” she told University World News.

Thanks to the Jesuit Refugee Service, a non-governmental organisation supporting refugees, Dusenge and others were able to attend primary school and high school inside the camp. But despite passing with good grades at A-level, she could not find a place at any university due to her refugee status.

In 2017 Dusenge learnt from her father about Kepler which was calling for people, including refugees, to apply.

Kepler is a non-governmental organisation working in partnership with Southern New Hampshire University to provide students in East Africa with access to accredited US degrees through a competency-based online degree.

“I was first assessed and passed the admission test and then got a green light to join the university,” she said. She and other female students were taken through an empowerment programme before commencing.

“I was overjoyed the day I saw my name on the list of admitted Kepler scholars. That day was the best day in my life.”

Dusenge is one of over 200 students that Kepler is currently supporting, including 137 living in Kiziba. There are 70 others enrolled at Kepler's headquarters in Kigali.

Unique model

Kepler has a unique model which requires 25% of its students to have refugee status, and it supports equal numbers of men and women.

The online work is paired with support services provided by Kepler, which include in-person coaching, health and financial support services and career preparation.

Dusenge is currently working on a project dubbed “Assisting refugee children who live with irresponsible parents”.

She chose the project, which focuses on the provision of psychological and counselling services to families, because she had friends whose parents neglected them as children.

The project is currently being trialled with about 40 women and over 100 children, and she hopes to expand its reach once COVID-19 is over and activities resume.

Twenty-two year-old Jackson Byiringiro, also from the DRC, is one of over 20,000 refugees hosted inside Kigeme Camp in the western province’s Nyamagabe district.

After completing his secondary education, he took a short course on hairdressing to acquire a basic skill.

“I applied for a Kepler scholarship when its staff came to the camp to campaign. I was lucky to be selected after going through the process. It was a rare opportunity and an unexpected one, I wondered why I was chosen from a large number of applicants.”

After enrolling, he is acquiring skills to create his own business and has dreams of completing a PhD.

“Thanks to access to university, I hope my future is bright. I feel like I am a person who can do whatever I need to do. I am a grown up and empowered person, different from whom I was before, thanks to skills I acquired through Kepler.”

Low enrolment

According to the UNHCR report Stepping Up: Refugee education in crisis, released last year, access to higher education stood at 3% among refugees, compared with 24% for secondary education.

According to Elise Laura Villechalane, external relations officer at UNHCR-Rwanda, only 124 refugee students were enrolled in higher education in 2020 out of the total of 1,169 who completed secondary schooling the previous year.

Other partners helping to educate refugees include the University of Rwanda, Adventist Development and Relief Agency Rwanda, Maison Shalom, African Leadership University, among others, according to Villechalane.

She said additional donor support is needed “to further improve the learning environment and offer more scholarships in secondary school boarding schools and universities”.