Microcredential: From Camp to Campus Fall School

UCLL Campus Hertogstraat - Hertogstraat 178 - 3001 Heverlee

From Unrecognized Talent to Shared Prosperity

The FWO project From Camp to Campus offers a week-long course on the challenges and opportunities associated with investing in refugees and newcomers by improving access to higher education, not only for refugees and migrants, but also for all students concerned with lifelong learning.

For professionals working with refugees and migrants in academia, government, industry, NGOs, or related sectors, this is an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of how higher education can act as an agent of positive change in and for society.

We will also explore how systems, attitudes, and procedures can create unintended hurdles that prevent vulnerable students, including native-born students, from developing their talent and potential for the benefit of society as a whole and make suggestions on how to remedy that.

Locatie opmerkingen

The historic Irish College and UCLL Hertogstraat Campus, Leuven, Belgium

Programma

Day One

Opening: Social Investment and the Purpose of From Camp to Campus (Irish College).

Introduces the purpose of the From Camp to Campus project and frames the Fall School through Social Investment theory. It asks how higher education can help transform the unrecognized talent of refugees and newcomers into shared prosperity for individuals, institutions, and society.

Speakers: the Mayor of the City of Leuven Mohamed Ridouani, Dr. Tobias Hentze Institut der Deutschen Wirtshaft, Panel Discussion with Reception.

Day Two

The Past Explains the Present and Points towards the Future (Hertogstraat Campus).

Provides the necessary legal, historical, and political background for understanding the current position of well-educated refugees and newcomers in Flanders and Europe. It explores how migration since the 2015 refugee crisis and the Ukraine crisis has shaped legal status, public attitudes, policy frameworks, and the question of whether the “age of goodwill” is coming to an end.

Day Three

Access to Higher Education in Real Time. (Hertogstraat Campus)

Focuses on the practical pathways that shape access to higher education for refugees and newcomers, including admissions, recognition of qualifications, preparatory programmes, and language acquisition. It also addresses barriers such as fragmented systems, bias, financial constraints, and political or budgetary pressures.

Day Four

From Integration to Belonging: Care of Students in Stress. (Hertogstraat Campus).

Examines the support refugees and newcomers need to remain, participate, and succeed in higher education. It focuses on student services, financial and housing insecurity, mental health, discrimination, academic preparation, and the importance of student voices.

Evening: Networking diner

Day Five

Towards a Shared Future: Fairness, Transparency and Efficiency (Hertogstraat Campus).

Looks toward the future of higher education and its ability to recognize the talent and potential of refugees and newcomers for the benefit of society as a whole. It explores how examples such as the globally recognized ‘shared admission systems’ of UCAS and Studielink can inspire fairer, more transparent, and more efficient admissions systems.

Download the detailed course sheet: