Introduction
The Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) Project is a consortium of Canadian and Kenyan universities and NGOs that aims to make educational programs available where refugees need them.
Today, millions are displaced as a result of war, persecution, violence, instability, drought, and environmental disasters in a world that is increasingly hostile towards refugees and asylum-seekers. Many are caught in displacement, often for ten years or more. Attending university or accessing other tertiary degree programs is nearly impossible with only 3% of refugees in the world able to access higher education (UNHCR 2019). Scholarship programs that do exist are few, favour select top-performing younger students, and take students away from their locale (WUSC 2021; UNHCR 2021). Women face additional barriers to pursuing an education.
BHER works to provide accredited university programs to working, untrained refugee and local teachers where they are. The project focuses on education for refugees caught in extended exile in the global South for more than 15 years, living in an underserved region where resources and supports for learning are scarce. By building the capacity of refugee and local teachers and leaders, they themselves are able to improve education and enact local solutions in the camps and community. We believe that the provision of quality higher education to refugees and locals will contribute to the conditions for justice, sustainability, and peace in Kenya, Somalia, and the surrounding region.