Arqus bottom-up initiative “An Alliance supporting refugees’ right to a qualified and unique study experience”
Arqus
|
19 Mar 2025
The bottom-up initiative “Arqus: an Alliance supporting refugees’ right to a qualified and unique study experience” aims to organise a day of reflection on refugee students at each partner university. The universities commit to spreading good practices and stimulating dialogue and reflection on the importance of opening the doors of higher education to those in need, by preparing a presentation of their local efforts to include refugee students and by screening a film documentary.
- Presentation: Each university will present their ongoing local activities for the inclusion of refugee students with testimonials from welcomed students, to bring the theories to life with real, lived experiences. Afterwards, there will be a debate with students and staff, engaging the audience in a collective reflection. The debate will be guided by Elisa Gamba from the A. Papisca Human Rights Center at the University of Padua, PhD student and member of Arqus Inclusion and Diversity Hub.
- Documentary screening:
- “When you can’t go back”, a story about the life of a Syrian refugee student in Italy.
- “Refugee Girls”, two parallel stories: an Afghan student at Sapienza University of Rome, and two Ukrainian girls at the University of Barcelona.
One of the two documentaries will be screened, followed by a discussion guided by students and staff of the host institution and counting with the presence of Leonardo Cinieri Lombroso, director of both documentary films.
The event will be replicated across all universities, but the outputs will naturally vary, depending on the context and how the discussion is driven by the participants. The “Arqus: an Alliance supporting refugees” initiative aims to involve all Arqus universities in analyzing the current situation and developing a potential improvement plan, all through the organisation of film forums.
- 7 March: Maynooth University, read about the event here.
- 10 April: University of Wrocław
- 7 May: University of Graz
- Later on: the rest of the universities of the Alliance.
This proposal reflects Arqus values and goals: respect for diversity and human rights, solidarity, barrier-free cooperation, interculturality, and the role of universities as open places of freedom, pluralism, and democratic participation.
The initiative “Arqus: an Alliance supporting refugees’ right to a qualified and unique study experience” is one of the funded ad hoc bottom-up initiatives with a joint approach and impact on the Alliance. The Arqus Innovation Fund incentivises innovative internal bottom-up initiatives from Arqus staff and students by providing seed funding to foster innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as to increase the visibility of Arqus internally and encourage further staff engagement.
Contact person for each University:
| University of Padua | Elisa Gamba elisa.gamba.1@phd.unipd.it |
| University of Graz | Gerd Oberleitner gerd.oberleitner@uni-graz.at |
| Maynooth University | Rodrigo Souza Silva rodrigo.souzasilva.2021@mumail.ie |
| Vilnius University | Lina Garbenciute lina.garbenciute@cr.vu.lt |
| University of Wrocław | Magdalena Ratajczak magdalena.ratajczak@uwr.edu.pl |
| University of Granada | María Ángeles Martínez Sánchez mundodesilencio@ugr.es |
| Leipzig University | Chiara Enderle chiara.enderle@uni-leipzig.de |
| University of Lyon 1 | Isabelle Compagnon isabelle.compagnon@univ-lyon1.fr |
| University of Minho | Miguel Cunha miguel.cunha@usaae.uminho.pt |
