June 20, 2023, marks the 22nd annual United Nations World Refugee Day, a day celebrated internationally to honor refugees and the strength, resilience, and courage of these individuals who have been displaced by conflict, persecution, and environmental crises.
For the past seven years, AACRAO has actively been contributing to the support of access to higher education for vulnerable and displaced people through supporting numerous initiatives, programs, projects, and outreach, including the Article 26 Backpack and the 2019 AACRAO Report on Inclusive Admissions Policies for Displaced and Vulnerable Students, and we are committed to continuing this important work.
Access to higher education in the United States by refugees can be complicated, not only due to admission requirements and monetary barriers as often discussed but also due to how refugee students enter the country. Most refugees are offered admission
to the country and resettled under the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration’s Priority 1 - Priority 3 categories (P1 and P3, respectively) in which there is no pathway to education, and efforts are focused
on resettlement and refugees becoming financially stable. The majority of refugees that do come to the U.S. and study at higher education institutes do so under the F-1 visa category, which poses multiple barriers, that can be impossible to overcome,
including stating intent to return to your country of origin upon completing the program of study, as well as providing financial support for the duration of the program.
In the spring of 2021, AACRAO was asked to participate in a task force aimed to provide guidance on the design of a new university sponsorship program for refugee students to access higher education in the United States that would help mitigate these
barriers. This initiative, led by the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, brought together over fifty organizations and institutions, and over a
four-month period, developed the 2021 report: University Sponsorship of Refugee Students: Initiative on Increasing U.S. Education Pathways for Refugee Students.
The report presented comprehensive policy recommendations and strategies to the U.S. Government, including the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), and program recommendations to colleges and universities
and other stakeholders.
Key recommendations to the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) are to implement a university sponsorship program, allowing refugees to enter the United States under a new private sponsorship visa category,
Priority 4 (P-4), under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), and making key adjustments to the F-1 visa system for refugee students not able to access the P-4 designation category. Recommendations for colleges and universities and other stakeholders
include implementing service offices for the administration of the new pathway scheme, as well as providing student services specific to supporting the success of refugee students.
In the January 2022 Report to Congress on Proposed Refugee Admissions, Biden outlines a new university pilot program
that would include college and university sponsorship opportunities as well as the creation of a new P-4 category, expanding the current P1-P3 categories, based on the recommendations of the Presidents’ Alliance 2021 report on university sponsorship.
Though the Biden administration has yet to implement the college and university pilot program, anticipated in 2022, as outlined in the January 2022 Report to Congress, AACRAO is confident that the recommendations posed to the State Department and
the continued push for a new college and university pathway for refugees to access higher education in the U.S. will come to fruition, and we will come to see tangible results in the near future.