Higher education policy dynamics in turbulent times – access to higher education for refugees in Europe

ABSTRACT

Apart from teaching, research and service to society, since 2015 higher education systems and institutions in Europe have faced an additional expectation – to respond to the largely unexpected yet nevertheless growing demand for higher education by refugees. This study explores system and organizational level responses to such environmental pressures in Germany and Flanders, both affluent systems, but different in terms of size, attractiveness as destination and the extent to which their languages are widely spoken. Relying primarily on document analysis and interviews, the study highlights three elements of policy dynamics: policy styles, main drivers, and extent of involvement of non-state actors. While, as expected, in both systems the dynamics were re-active, solution-driven, and with strong involvement of non-state actors, contrary to expectations both countries responded primarily in a bottom-up manner. The study provides a conceptual tool and a first empirical insight into this novel phenomenon.

KEYWORDS:

• Refugees
• higher education
• Europe
• public policy
• Germany
• Flanders

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Jens Jungblut http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8231-5361

Martina Vukasovic http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0722-2645

Notes

1 Translated by one of the authors, see: https://www.daad.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/2016/de/49167-hochschulprogramme-fuer-fluechtlinge-verlaengert/ (20.04.2018).

2 Concerning other levels of education and their response to increasing refugee numbers, see also special issues of the European Educational Research Journal, vol 17, issue 2 (2018) and European Education, vol. 49, issue 4 (2017).

3 The data used in this study were initially collected for a project coordinated by the European Students’ Union and funded by the Open Society Foundations (OSF). Final report of the project can be found at: https://www.esu-online.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ESU-Are-Refugees-Welcome_-WEBSITE-1.compressed-1.pdf (08.05.2018).

4 The Federal Republic of Germany has 16 states, or as they are referred to in German Bundesländer or Länder.

5 See: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/cs_20160920_citiesrefugees_germanexperience.pdf (08.05.2018).

6 See also Vukasovic (2017).

7 The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) is based on the learning achievements and workload of a course. In this, 60 ECTS credits are the equivalent of a full year of study. See also: https://ec.europa.eu/education/resources/european-credit-transfer-accumulation-system_en (10.08.2018).

8 The recommendations (in Dutch) can be found here: http://www.vlor.be/files/ar-ar-adv-1516-002_0.pdf (15.02.2018).

9 www.vlor.be/files/rho-rho-adv-1617-006.pdf (05.02.2018).

10 B2 refers to the level of language proficiency according to the Common European Framework of Reference in Languages (CEFR). See also: https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages/level-descriptions (10.08.2018).

11 http://ec.europa.eu/research/science4refugees/index.cfm (27.08.2018)

12 See: http://www.bamf.de/SharedDocs/Anlagen/DE/Downloads/Infothek/Statistik/Asyl/aktuelle-zahlen-zu-asyl-maerz-2018.pdf?__blob=publicationFile (23.04.2018).

13 www.anerkennung-in-deutschland.de (20.04.2018).

14 http://www.zeit.de/2015/50/studium-fluechtlinge-vorbereitung-sprachkurse-finanzierung (20.04.2018).

15 https://www.kmk.org/fileadmin/Dateien/veroeffentlichungen_beschluesse/2015/2015_12_03-Hochschulzugang-ohne-Nachweis-der-Hochschulzugangberechtigung_ENGLISCH.pdf (08.05.2018).

16 The DAAD is the largest German support organization in the field of international academic co-operation. See: https://www.daad.de/en/ (10.08.2018).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a grant from the Open Society Foundations (OSF) to the European Students’ Union (ESU), which coordinated the initial research project.Jens Jungblut acknowledges the financial support of the Research Council of Norway through its DIV-INT funding under project number 263544/F10. Martina Vukasovic acknowledges the support of the Research Council Flanders (FWO) [grant number G.OC42.13N].