Exploring Higher Education Access for Displaced Populations
A special issue of Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 March 2026) | Viewed by 1419
Special Issue Editor
Interests: higher education access and experience among displaced populations; higher education governance; international alumni affairs; cross-national constructions of "diversity"
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In 2025, continued shifts in armed conflict and climate change (among other drivers) have intersected with changing political regimes in both economically developed and economically developing countries to influence both refugee resettlement processes and humanitarian contribution (e.g., Anjomshoae, et al., 2025; Fee, et al., 2025). Thus, an examination of contemporary support, barriers, and experiences related to the education of displaced people is ever more pressing. In this Special Issue, we welcome both conceptual and empirical contributions, aiming to present the views of learners, practitioners, and scholars globally. The aim of this Special Issue is to capture the current state of play and gestures towards policy futures grounded in militant utopianism as a participatory, transformative tool for contesting exclusion (Denzin, 2009).
Particular areas of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:
- How do current, nationally specific educational equity agendas situate displacement and displaced learners?
- How does the current scholarly/grey literature focused on a particular world region indicate a future research agenda centering the higher education entry/attainment of displaced learners？
- How do pathways into higher education support or inhibit adult learners seeking post-secondary qualifications in any given setting？
- How do displaced scholars engage with thought partnership alongside displaced learners in online or in-person settings？
- How do legal or policy frameworks promote, constrain, or obscure displaced learners holding various permanent and temporary legal statuses?
References:
Anjomshoae, A., Banomyong, R., Hossein Azadnia, A., Kunz, N., & Blome, C. (2025). Sustainable humanitarian supply chains: A systematic literature review and research propositions. Production Planning & Control, 36(3), 357-377.
Denzin, N. (2009). The elephant in the living room: or extending the conversation about the politics of evidence. Qualitative Research, 139–160. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794108098034.
Fee, M., Darrow, J., Howsam Scholl, J., Cureton, A., & Gonzalez Benson, O. (2025). Refugee Resettlement: A Durable Solution at a Crossroads. Refugee Survey Quarterly, hdae031.
Dr. Lisa Unangst
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- higher education
- tertiary education
- post-secondary education
- refugees
- asylum
- displacement
- migration
- college access
- student success
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