Refugees remain severely underrepresented in higher education globally

UNESCO IESALC’s recently launched Higher Education Global Trends Report shows that only a minority of the countries featured in the Higher Education Policy Observatory include explicit provisions for the inclusion of refugees and displaced persons in their higher education policies.

Although global refugee enrollment saw a nine-fold increase, from 1% in 2019 to 9% in 2025 according to UNHCR, access for this population still falls drastically below the global enrollment rate of 44%. 

This disparity is even more acute in regions like Latin America and the Caribbean. While the region boasts an overall higher education enrollment rate of 59%, access to higher education for refugees and displaced persons plunges between 2% and 12%, depending on the host country. 

The paperwork barrier 

One of the largest barriers preventing refugees and displaced persons from re-entering higher education is the recognition of their prior qualifications, particularly when they lack documentary evidence. Having fled conflict or crises, many individuals do not possess complete or verifiable academic records, and often face complex administrative procedures, limited information provision and fragmented institutional systems.

Recognition of qualifications 

UNESCO’s conventions for the recognition of qualifications concerning higher education–ratified by close to 100 Member States–call for fair, transparent and non-discriminatory recognition for these populations, including cases where official documents are missing.

However, practical implementation remains uneven worldwide. Flexible recognition procedures are typically stronger in the Global North, while remaining weaker in countries that host the largest shares of the global refugee population. 

Institutional innovation: flexible approaches as a blueprint 

Despite these systemic hurdles, several major refugee-hosting countries have adopted flexible pathways. Prominent innovative models include: 

• Türkiye: Utilizes specialized university commissions to directly assess candidates’ academic backgrounds and core knowledge through targeted written or oral exams. 
• Colombia: Leverages the Temporary Protection Permit (Permiso para Protección Temporal, PPT) as a streamlined legal mechanism to fast-track and simplify qualification recognition for Venezuelan migrants.
• Jordan: National recognition bodies issue temporary, annually renewable certificates. They achieve this by maintaining proactive, direct communication with institutions in the countries of origin, even when official records are missing or exceptionally difficult to obtain. 

Alternative and adaptive mechanisms–such as background documents, competency assessments, self-declarations and temporary certificates–are among the key mechanisms for assessing missing or incomplete documentation. Tools like the UNESCO Qualifications Passport (UQP), employed in countries such as Uganda and Zambia are also used to provide standardized documentation summarizing a refugee’s likely qualifications based on available evidence.

Building global and regional frameworks for action 

In the framework of the Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education, UNESCO is currently developing a global subsidiary text dedicated specifically to the recognition of qualifications for refugees and displaced persons. 

Building on this work and to support the implementation of the Buenos Aires Convention, UNESCO IESALC is developing a guideline tailored to the specific realities of Latin America and the Caribbean–in response to the unprecedented intensification of human mobility in the region.

Such efforts aim to support ministries, national recognition bodies, and universities to develop mechanisms to to support the recognition of these vulnerable groups’ qualifications, ensuring that a lack of physical paperwork does not signal the end of an individual's academic and professional future.