Syrian University Students Seek Education Overseas

From VOA Learning English, this is the Education Report.

Many Syrians are trying to study overseas while a civil war continues in their country. Thousands of Syrian university students sought help when they learned there was money to help them continue their education.

Leen al Zaibak is with Jusoor, an organization for Syrians living overseas. Jusoor joined with the American-based Institute of International Education to create the Syria Consortium for Higher Education in Crisis. More than 40 universities in the United States and Europe agreed to provide emergency aid to Syrian students and professors. Each university decides which students to accept. Universities in the consortium are supporting 70 students right now.

One member of the consortium is American University in Washington. It is supporting a Syrian graduate student and a faculty member in the university’s School of International Service. Daniela Kaisth is the vice president of the Institute of International Education. She expects there will be aid opportunities for 600 Syrian students during the next few months. She notes that a former president of Portugal, Jorge Sampaio, launched ascholarship program called the Global Platform 4 Syrian Students. He created the program because of Portugal’s history of educating Jewish refugee children during World War II.

The Institute of International Education also has a Scholar Rescue Fund for university professors and researchers in any country in crisis. This year, the fund found places for 30 Syrian scholars in five countries. All of the scholarship programs may be found online at iie.org.