The Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education (CEEHE) at the University of Newcastle (UON) is proud to announce that we will be holding our inaugural one-day symposium on students from refugee backgrounds in higher education on 20 November 2015.
This symposium has been developed out of a UON community of interest, exploring how students from refugee backgrounds experience, access and engage in their undergraduate studies. It is connected to two ongoing studies:
1) A CEEHE-funded project which is exploring the experiences of access and belonging of students from refugee backgrounds in higher education; and
2) An Office for Teaching and Learning (OLT)-funded, multi-partner project that is looking at the pathways of students from refugee backgrounds into and through higher education from three different departure points: TAFE–enabling–undergraduate pathways (UON); school–university pathways (Macquarie University) and Intensive English Centre (IEC)–university pathways (Curtin University).
The funding of these two projects, along with two other recent OLT-funded projects, suggests that students from refugee backgrounds, who have experienced forced migration and who have different language and cultural backgrounds, are an underrepresented equity group who deserve further support and consideration.
Call for Presentation Proposals
We have deliberately taken a praxis approach to the design of this one-day symposium. Working from the key ethos of CEEHE, we adopt Paulo Freire’s understanding of praxis as activity and reflection that leads to transformation.
We invite applications for 45-minute workshops on one of two core themes:
1. Practice (activity) — seeking accounts of pedagogical practice, interventions and support initiatives; and
2. Research (reflection) — encompassing theoretical, methodological and conceptual accounts of refugees in post-primary education
Email your 400 word proposal/abstract by 2 October 2015 to ceehe@newcastle.edu.au
From these rich conversations, we hope to be able to grow our community of interest in students from refugee backgrounds nationally, and maintain our compassion and energy for groups of people who are pilloried by political parties and often misunderstood and made invisible in and by the academy.
We are also pleased to be able to offer 5 x $200 travel grants to RHD students and/or casual staff members to encourage broad attendance of people who work with and are interested in this area.
Event Information
Friday 20 November 2015
8:30am - 4:00pm
Council Room, Industry Development Centre
University of Newcastle, Callaghan NSW 2308
Cost: Free (catering included)
To register your interest in attending or for further information please contact CEEHE:
Email: ceehe@newcastle.edu.au Phone: 02 49216 817