3.1.1 An introduction to the inclusion at higher education level of refugees and other beneficiaries of international protection

The right to education for children is protected under several international human rights instruments, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Additionally, the recast Reception Conditions Directive establishes the standards for the conditions which must be met during the reception phase of an asylum procedure. These standards aim at guaranteeing that rights and obligations are harmonized across all Member States. The reception of applicants for international protection includes rules on material reception conditions, financial allowances, freedom of movement, access to health care, education for children, access to the labour market, language instruction and socio-cultural orientation.
Despite the existence of international and European standards, the right to education is at risk for many young refugees. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) the percentage of refugees that have been able to enrol in higher education courses is significantly lower than that for their non-refugee peers. To be precise, only 63 per cent have access to primary education, compared to 91 per cent of children globally, and only 24 per cent of young refugees receive secondary education, compared to 84 per cent globally. At the tertiary level, just 3 per cent of refugees have access to higher education, compared to 37 per cent globally.
According to UNHCR, Education 2030: A Strategy for Refugee Education, 2019 “the tertiary education target for 2030 is to enrol 15% of college-eligible refugees in tertiary, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) or connected education programs in the host and third countries and to achieve equitable gender representation across tertiary enrolments”. As the UNHCR highlights, improving the level of refugee participation in tertiary education from 3% to 15% over the next decade represents an ambitious but feasible goal.
The difficulties in achieving that goal are closely connected with the challenges faced by refugees, students and those working in universities that stand in the way of refugee students’ access to higher education. Some of these reasons are described in the next paragraph.