Refugees Education Support in mena CoUntriEs

RESCUE

Project Presentation

BBACKGROUND/CONTEXT

The partner countries involved in the RESCUEProject, namely Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, KRG(but also some of the Programme Countriesinvolved, such as Turkey and Germany) areexperiencing a very critical situation due to thehigh number of refugees present on their territory:most of these are Syrian citizens, and include ahigh percentage of former University students whohad to interrupt their academic curriculum.

OBCJECTIVESThe main specific objective of RESCUE is to help thePartner Country Universities in structuring aneffective response to this problem, by creating adhoc units (the Refugee Student OperationalSupport Unit – R-SOS), whose mission is tostructure specific services supporting the refugeestudents and enhancing University capacities toface local crisis.

The analysis carried out by the target Universitieshas shown that each one of them has differentapproaches and constraints vis-à-vis this problem,therefore ad hoc solutions must be implemented ineach one of them.

It is expected that the setting up of the R-SOS unitswill help in improving the situation of the refugeestudents either by supporting them in resumingtheir academic path in the hosting countries origin,providing new opportunities in terms of educationand preparing them for returning to their origincountry once the crisis is over for the day after.

TARGET GROUPThe main target group is constituted by the staff ofthe partner Universities which will be trained torun the R-SOS Units.The final (indirect) beneficiaries of the projectshave been defined as any “student who wants tostart or continue his/her higher education studiesat the university and comes from a conflict zone,fleeing indiscriminate or generalized violence insituations of armed conflict”.This definition includes Syrian citizens and InternalDisplaced Persons.

DURATION: 36 Months

Organisation: UNIMED

Work package 1 – Update of Needs Analysis and Best Practices selectionThe specific needs and constraints of each target University are analysed in detailthrough surveys and site visits. Selected best practices are collected to serve as abasis to serve as a basis for the subsequent activities.Work package 2 – Developing an Action Plan for the creation of the R-SOS UnitFor each one of the seven target universities (Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq/KRG) acustomised action plan is developed and agreed, on the basis of the results ofWP1.Work package 3 – Implementation of the validated Action PlansThe R-SOS are set up on the basis of the Action Plans. The local staff of each unitis trained appropriately.Work package 4 – Start up of the Refugee Students Operational Support (R-SOS) UnitsThe R-SOS units start operations, the activities are closely monitored in order tofine tune their functioning. A number of pilot courses for the students aredelivered.Work package 5 – Quality PlanThe quality plan is implemented to ensure the highest level of quality of theresults, the quality team includes an external evaluator to provide anindependent view.Work package 6 – Dissemination and exploitation of resultsThe Dissemination plan is deployed to ensure the maximum awareness andvisibility to the Project, involving a wide range of stakeholders. The plan includesfive dissemination conferences in Beirut, Amman, Duhok, Brussels and Rome.Work package 7- Project ManagementUNIMED ensures the management of the project from the strategic, operationaland administrative point of view.

Project Results

The most important expected result of the RESCUEproject will be to have 7 R-SOS units operational inthe seven partner Universities, supporting the finalbeneficiaries. These Units will be staffed with 3-4trained professionals and will be all networkedamong them in order to share information andexperiences. They will be equipped with thenecessary IT equipment and for each one of them afully IT equipped classroom will be set up for thestudents who will be able to receive online trainingand access to the Internet.

Hosting communities must be involved as part ofthe solution benefiting from the RESCUE R-SOSactivities.

A tailored approach is needed in order to betteranswer to the different Universities needs at locallevel.

CONTACT INFORMATIONContact person: Raniero ChelliEmail: r.chelli@uni-med.netTelephone: +39 06 68581430

WEBSITE: https://www.rescuerefugees.eu

SOCIAL MEDIAFollow us on Facebook:Follow us on Twitter: @Refugees_Rescue

Sustainability & Synergies with other Projects

The sustainability of the project’s results will beensured by the structural improvements in thecreation of the R-SOS UNITS (enhanced skills,networking, involvement of refugees) for which theparticipating Universities have already takencommitment. The activities foreseen by the projectwill generate structural changes at the level ofpartners Universities and therefore the sustainabilityis a direct consequence of the project structure.The core means of sustainability is indeed toempower local staff (administrative and teaching)providing them with increased competences. Thismechanism will ensure that the target group isproperly prepared for taking over, technically andmethodologically, the growing presence of refugeesin their countries during and after the end of theproject.The partner Universities have shown a high interestand commitment in carrying forward theachievements of the project and they considerRESCUE as a fundamental part of their present andfuture strategy.Synergies are being set up with other relevantprojects in the area, in fact:

UNIMED is the coordinator of both RESCUE andINHERE, and especially in the area of Best Practicesselection a significant exchange of information andmethodologies has taken place.

Also constant contacts and exchange of informationare in progress with the HOPES project coordinatedby DAAD and funded by the M

inHERE Final Conference, 19 September 2018, BrusselsSynergies for Sustainability of Higher Education Projects Supporting Refugees in Europe

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Information

Project Activities

The inHERE project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the EU