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You are here: Home / RAGU / HERAN (Higher Education for Refugees and Asylum Seekers Network)

HERAN (Higher Education for Refugees and Asylum Seekers Network)

RAGU established HERAN (Higher Education for Refugees and Asylum seekers Network) in 2003. From the start of dispersal in 1999 we received enquiries from colleges and universities throughout the UK about issues affecting refugees and asylum seekers who wanted to access higher education. Typically, enquiries were about:

	Eligibility, access and funding for asylum seekers
	Ways of obtaining recognition and accreditation of overseas qualifications and experience
	School leavers who are accepted by universities but then find that, as asylum seekers, they are considered to be overseas students
	Lack of consistency or contradictions in policies or practices in different institutions
	Examples of models of good practice in providing courses and services for refugees and asylum seekers with higher level education or professional qualifications
	RAGU's APEL (Assessment of Prior Experiential Learning) programme for refugees and asylum seekers

In response to this, we established this network. We wanted to create a representative UK-wide group to influence and inform policy development, establish more consistency in practice, disseminate information in this rapidly changing field and share experience and examples of good practice.

The network has members from over 25 universities around the UK , exchanging ideas and information through e-mail and telephone. As everyone is not able to attend meetings, we have also developed a website to disseminate information and to allow network members to contact each other. The website includes a useful guide for staff in higher education who want to be better informed about asylum seeker and refugees who are students or prospective students. It also has information and ideas for staff development and examples of higher education projects for refugees and asylum seekers.

First HERAN conference

In May 2005 we held our first HERAN conference, 'Initiatives in Higher Education for Refugees and Asylum Seekers'. This was well attended with just over 100 delegates from 31 universities from all over the UK , as well as representatives from colleges, refugee agencies, policy makers and funding bodies. Responses were positive. Many delegates commented that they were surprised and encouraged to see that so much work was going on. They were keen to go back to their institutions to share ideas from the workshops. Several of the panel members wanted to continue to work with HERAN so we will be inviting them to future meetings. A full report of the HERAN conference is available from the website.

To find out more click on: http://www.heran.org.uk/