This webinar will provide an introduction to University Refugee Sponsorship and how university communities can support forcibly displaced students and academics to keep in touch with their education and/or research, and continue their academic journeys.

This webinar aims to share information with:

University staff who are interested in learning how their organisation can sponsor displaced students and academics
Members of university communities who are interested in hosting displaced students and academics
Individuals interested in community sponsorship

What is University Sponsorship?

In December 2021, King's College London became the first university to sponsor a refugee student and their family, who had been forcibly displaced as a result of the Syrian conflict, under the UK Refugee Community Sponsorship Scheme. As the first university to resettle a refugee family to the UK and offer a scholarship to one family member, we have created a pilot for a safe and legal higher education-led pathway. The aim of this pilot was to set a precedent for other universities to also become Community Sponsors. The invasion of Ukraine created urgency and momentum to take this work forward.

Since March 2022, King's College London's Sanctuary Team has worked with Citizens UK, Ukrainian Sponsorship Pathway UK (USPUK) and three university partners to lead the development and delivery of the University Sponsorship Model, which enables universities to best implement the Government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme and help displaced Ukrainian students and academics to find safety in the UK and keep engaged with their studies and research.

The broader ambition of this work is to create a model that can be scaled, replicated and adapted to provide support for forcibly displaced students and academics from across the world.

This initiative builds on King’s longstanding work into creating opportunities for forcefully displaced people and sits alongside King’s Sanctuary Programme, formed in 2015 in response to the global issue of forced displacement which affects more than 100 million people worldwide.

This webinar will take place via Microsoft Teams. Once you register, you will be sent a link to join the session.

Please note, the main session will run from 12:00-13:00 and will include a Q&A. There will be an optional 30 minutes at the end of the webinar for further questions.

Find out more:

King's Sanctuary Programme

Webinar: University Refugee Sponsorship