Seeking Sanctuary in Higher Education: Access
´Seeking Sanctuary in Higher Education’ is a project funded by the University of Sheffield’s ONE University initiative. This project was designed to meet Objective (2), which was identified during the ‘(Re) imagining the Higher Education Border’ research project: ‘To increase awareness and understanding of both the trauma and strategies to mitigate it, experienced by people seeking sanctuary, in the process of accessing and participating in higher education’.
The project produced a series of comic strips and animations that sought to communicate through the three pillars of sanctuary (access - welcome - protection):
- Why opportunities to study and work in higher education are so challenging to access, yet play a vital role in the lives of people seeking sanctuary, and;
- How staff and students can take individual and collective action to ensure that universities are safe and welcoming places for people seeking sanctuary.
Access
Access is a central pillar of the ‘(Re)imagining the Higher Education Border’ project. Forced migrants face systemic barriers to higher education, including financial exclusion, legal restrictions, bureaucratic hurdles, and cultural alienation.
Classified as international students, they are often charged prohibitive fees and struggle with disrupted educational histories, limited documentation, and complex scholarship processes. The project stresses that real access demands structural change, not individual charity.
Key recommendations include offering fully-funded Sanctuary Scholarships, reclassifying asylum seekers as home students, creating accessible entry pathways, simplifying admissions, and building partnerships with refugee-supporting organisations.
Providing pre-application support and safeguarding students' legal rights are also essential. True solidarity means reshaping universities to include forced migrants fully, transforming higher education from an exclusive privilege into a collective right.
Credits
Project Leads
- Dr Rebecca Murray, Lecturer in Sociological Studies at the University of Sheffield - Primary Investigator
- Dr Patricia Nabuco Martuscelli, Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Sheffield - Co-investigator
Research Associates
- Angel Nakhle
- Enioluwada Oluwajaba
REHAB Researchers
- Abdullah
- Abdulrahman
- Arooba
- Aysha
- Daniel
- Maryam
- Sam
- Tamana
Creative Team
- Susana Vinolo: Illustrator
- Dominic Foster: Creative Editor
