At the UNHCR headquarter,Yarmouk University and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) held a dialogue meeting entitled "Possibilities and Alternatives” concerning increasing the enrollment of refugees in higher education programs in Jordan with an average of 15% by 2030. The meeting took place in the presence of a delegation from Al al-Bayt University including members from Al al-Bayt Council of Trustees and Al al-Bayt’s Vice President for Academic Affairs and Director of the Refugee Center. The meeting aimed at enhancing the efforts towards achieving Goal 15 by 2030, which was activated in 2022 through Yarmouk University and the UNHCR during the first national dialogue session for Goal 15 by 2030. The meeting also aimed at strengthening the national information management systems, the registration systems in universities,thus enabling them to disclose the status of international protection needed for planning, programming, and increasing the number of refugee students enrolled in higher education institutions.
During the meeting, the Director of the Refugees, Displaced Persons and Forced Migration Studies Center at Yarmouk University, Dr. Reem Al-Kharouf, reviewed the beginnings of the project which started by many sessions and meeting with the aim of figuring out the causes and obstacles that decrease the enrollment rate of refugees in higher education programs. She then reported that more than 100 students and participants from Yarmouk University and the local community participated in the project’s sessions, which reflects the significance of such meetings and gatherings for refugees’ aspirations and objectives.
In the same context, Zeina Jadaan, head of the education department at UNHCR, emphasized that higher education is essential for refugees, when it comes to providing long-term development solutions, whether in host countries or countries of origin.She then pointed to the inability of refugee students to afford university tuition fees in the international program after the end of their secondary education, promoting that as the main reason behind the low rates of enrollment in higher education institutions.
