Equal Access Policy
The term refugee applies to any person who, owing to a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, or membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country. An asylum seeker is someone who has lodged an application for protection on the basis of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.
The UK’s current policies on this matter ensure that asylum seekers are unable to work for a living or claim benefits. They are given a payment card of £36.95 per week to live on (this will go up to £37.75 on February 5th).
According to Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has the right to education... and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit". However, asylum seekers are classed as international students by ARU, meaning that despite living in the UK and living on a small allowance, they are expected to pay up to £25,000 a year for their study.
Asylum seekers are: not allowed access to student finance. unable to study in another country, denied the right to work in the UK, often required to wait like this for years while a decision is made as to whether they can stay in the UK.
The aims of our campaign are:
- To get 10 tuition fee scholarships for refugees and asylum seekers – for 3 postgraduates and for 7 undergraduates
- For scholarship students to have guaranteed places in university owned accommodation for all scholarship students for three years
- For ARU to create a bursary pot to help those in receipt of the scholarship places with maintenance costs
- For ARU to reclassify refugees and asylum seekers as home students, particularly in terms of fee payment
- For ARU to politically lobby where they are able for asylum seekers and refugees to be treated as home students
- For ARU to become part of the Universities of Sanctuary scheme
A number of UK universities have amended their admissions policies to allow people seeking refugee protection to pay ‘home’ tuition fees, or have waived fees entirely. These include: King's College, Warwick, York, Queen Mary’s, London School of Economics, Goldsmiths and more (see here for more information).