The UB commemorates the World Refugee Day

The global rate of accessing university is 37%, but when it comes to refugee people this is reduced to the 3%. To change this situation, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has committed to guarantee that 15% of the young refugees can access higher education by 2030. This objective is known as 15by30. Since 2015, the University of Barcelona has been contributing to this objective through its Support Program to Refugees. As part of this program, there is a university transition course which receives fifteen young people from conflict areas (40% are women) every edition. Apart from a study grant, the program provides these people with a comprehensive support in line with the complementary pathways for admision to third countries.

On June 20, the World Refugee Day, the Universtity of Barcelona, through the UB Solidarity Foundation, will share through social networks, images and words the students from the support program chose to represent their lives in Barcelona, in order to give visibility to the realities of young refugees. These will be published with the hashtag #UBRefugi2021 and there will be a series of photographs of the refugee camps in Moria and other places in the island of Lesbos, taken by the coordinator of the program, Cati Jerez, during a work visit in November 2019. Lesbos is one of the most representative places of the impact of the lack of protection policies of human rights for migrants and refugees.

Cooperate with the UB Support program to refugees

To contribute to the UB Support Program to Refugeesʼ grants, UB Sponsors launched the microcenage campaign Refuge University: Safe ways to support refugee students. This campaign aims to raise funds so that young people from Syria, Afganistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Palestine, among other countries, can access university and have the chance to rebuild their lives. Donations can be done through this website.

Taking back the webinar cycle Shelter, University and Local World

Also, the UB Solidarity Foundation Youtube channel offers the six webinars of Shelter, University and Local World , organized by the Foundation during this week, with the support from the Barcelona City Council. The cycle gathered several international experts to analyze and debate how the alliance between the university and the local world can favour the welcoming of migrant people and refugees and promote the cohesion and social inclusion with a clear human rights perspective.

UB Computer Science hackathon to create an app on asylum

The Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science and the UB Solidarity Foundation are organizing, from June 25 to 28, the hackathon App4InfoRefugees. The activity, with the support from the Barcelona City Council, presents a specific challenge to the students: to create a phone app to promote the access to information on asylum for refugees once they reach Spain and the staff of the entities that work in this field. The registrations can be done until June 22 through this form.

Further information