Global displacement has reached an all-time high, with over 123 million people forcibly displaced due to conflict, climate change, and economic instability. Among them, millions face significant barriers to accessing higher education, despite the myriad of benefits it has been found to offer displaced people, including enhanced skills and job opportunities needed for all durable solutions, social inclusion into their host communities, and long term resilience and hope for the future.
Currently, only 9% of refugees worldwide are enrolled in higher education, which is a direct result of structural challenges such as high costs, legal restrictions on access to education, higher education administrative barriers, and inflexible programme formats and structures that fail to adapt to their specific needs. Existing higher education initiatives for displaced populations, ranging from scholarships to online or blended courses, have made significant progress in expanding access to quality learning opportunities through innovative design and implementation strategies. While scholarship programmes have provided much needed opportunities to thousands of displaced learners, they still reach only a fraction of those in need. Online and blended learning models have connected millions of students worldwide to higher education, and several programmes have successfully designed innovative ways to offer crucial elements, such as personalised academic and psychosocial support, peer and group learning, and relevant methods and content.
The Global University Academy (GUA) seeks to build upon these achievements, acknowledging that quality higher education for displaced learners must go beyond extending mere access. To do this, the GUA aims to establish an innovative and sustainable model that incorporates displaced communities, local and national institutions, and international partners with a proven track record of success in designing innovative higher education solutions in contexts of displacement.
The GUA model is rooted in the understanding that lifelong learning is a human right for all.