Online University Education Opens Up Prospects for Refugees around the World

There are now more than 100 million displaced persons and refugees around the world, the highest number in history, according to the United Nations. The wars spreading in Ukraine, Afghanistan, the Middle East, Central Africa and other hot spots on the planet have increased the numbers without providing solutions for the return of refugees or their integration into the societies in which they sought refuge. The biggest problem facing host countries is the dependence of refugees on financial and in-kind assistance, which increases the state of lethargy and lack of desire for economic interaction among refugee youth, given the multiplicity of institutions supporting refugees.

The researcher in university education affairs, Dr. Muhammad Rizkallah, believes that university education is capable of increasing the efficiency, ambition, and interaction of refugees with new societies. to the community. If a refugee obtains a university degree, he can work in middle or higher jobs instead of working in low jobs, or even join the unemployment that is rampant among refugees around the world, hence the need to support university education for this large group.

The biggest challenge for refugees is enrolling in universities, first for financial reasons related to paying education expenses that are not within the reach of most refugees in the world, and second is obtaining acceptable identification papers for enrollment in public or private universities, as refugees usually face a problem with papers, and therefore universities do not accept them. Then the refugee will either join the group of the unemployed, and perhaps some of them, due to frustration, turn to violence, crime, or psychological frustration, or the group of workers in lower-level jobs, such as construction, cleaning, and other jobs that may not be commensurate with the level of intelligence of that person, in whom there are many factors of mental success. But he does not find an educational incubator.

The United Nations, especially the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, seeks to encourage e-learning at a distance, as one of the effective tools for spreading university education among refugees, and has initiated a number of cooperative projects with a number of universities around the world, such as the American University of the People. In which nearly 20,000 refugees and displaced persons from Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine learn for free.

In turn, Pascaline Servan-Schreiber, Chair of the University of the People’s Board of Trustees, stressed the importance of providing educational opportunities for refugees around the world, as it only requires a computer and access to the Internet, so that any refugee can learn remotely.

Servan-Schreiber said: “We believe that it is the duty of the world to look with great interest at the future of refugees, and to provide job opportunities to improve their living conditions and integrate them into the labor market. For this reason, the university has sought, since its inception, to provide thousands of scholarships for refugees, and even to continue to help them until they find a job in international companies.” Especially those that rely on remote work, which has become an international approach, especially after the Corona pandemic.

Perhaps the Syrian crisis for more than a decade constituted the greatest burden in the Middle East and Europe, but with the continuation of the Ukrainian war and the world’s abandonment of Afghanistan in a way that guarantees the continuation of university education, especially for women, all of this increased the number of refugees or displaced persons. One example is the Syrian refugee Ahmed Hamo, who was displaced to Idlib after the outbreak of the war in Syria. He is studying online. He says: “I lost any hope for university studies, and I could not leave Idlib because of my family’s circumstances and the dangerous roads, but I found my goal in distance education. I am now studying business administration remotely after I got a scholarship. Many of my friends in Europe could not complete their university studies.”

This is why their situation is very miserable, especially since European universities do not accept their affiliation due to not completing their identity papers, or even submitting their previous school certificates when they were in Syria and left without remembering that it might benefit them in the future. Online university education has been a solution for Hamo and other refugees, which now drives him to work during the day to earn a living, and study at night to build a better future.

As for the Ukrainian refugee, Yaroslava Symonenko, she says, “The experience of war changes life in itself. Now via the Internet, it is the only option for me, and I will continue to study even if I move with my family from one country to another, because my university is on my computer that I left Ukraine with.”

Many universities have begun to move towards e-learning, not only to help refugees, but also because the experience during the pandemic has opened up new horizons for education, especially since students do not need to attend the university, and it is enough to study from home.

Here comes the question of how to evaluate students’ performance, provide exams, and provide credibility. Dr. Muhammad Rizkallah, an expert in university education affairs, answers: “Exams are among the traditional assessment tools that can be easily modified to better suit online learning. For example, unstructured tests can be used at the beginning of a lesson to understand students’ current knowledge, and quizzes can be used again after the lesson is completed as an interactive tool for evaluating overall performance. Educators can easily create and modify online tests using the variety of tools and platforms currently available.”

Rizkallah adds that essays or open-ended questions are another method of online assessment. This method encourages students to explain their understanding of learning concepts in detail. Rizkallah argues that this type of assessment cannot be automatically graded, and teachers must read each individual answer and provide a score or feedback.

He asserts that interactive activities, such as games, can enhance student learning by enhancing non-cognitive skills, such as problem-solving, risk-taking, collaboration and discipline. This type of assessment allows teachers to assess student learning in a fun and engaging way that is not like traditional tests. There are countless educational apps that can be used to create game-based assessments.

This is a translated version of the original story first published in Al Bayan (The Dispatch)