Asia-Paciﬁc Region Complementary
Education Pathways Community ofPractice Meeting

Hotel Benilde, Manila
The Philippines
February 12-13, 2024

Rationale for the Asia-Paciﬁc Region Complementary
Education Pathways Community of Practice meeting
Building on recommendations from the May 2023 meeting of the Global Task Force on
Third Country Educational Pathways, De La Salle Philippines & The Embassy of Canada
to the Philippines are proud to host the inaugural Asia-Paciﬁc Region Complementary
Education Pathways Community of Practice meeting on February 12 & 13, 2024 at the
Hotel Benilde in Manila, the Philippines.
At the last meeting of the Global Task Force (GTF) Community of Practice (CoP), hosted
by the GTF at Sophia University in Tokyo in May 2023, colleagues reported that regional
meetings would oSer a more cost-eSective means for discussing issues of particularinterest to actors in each region. Consequently, we decided to host our ﬁrst regional AsiaPaciﬁc meeting to facilitate meaningful engagement for practitioners in the region.
Aims
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Bring together students with lived experience of forced migration, practitioners,
educators, advocates, policymakers, and UNHCR representatives to discuss
progress and practice since the last GTF CoP meeting in May 2023.
Proﬁle the educational pathway pledges in the region to signal the commitment
within the Asia-Paciﬁc to create new, and expand existing, educational
pathways.
To communicate this commitment to other nations and partners in the AsiaPaciﬁc who are not yet engaged in third country educational pathways andencourage their participation in discussions as aspirants.
Encourage the development of national consortia of university partners.
Facilitate the establishment of more Asia-Paciﬁc-speciﬁc refugee student
advocacy groups, speciﬁcally to join the UNHCR’s Tertiary Refugee Student
Network and Peer-to-Peer Student Advisor Network.

Executive Summary
This inaugural Asia Paciﬁc Region Complementary Education Pathways Community ofPractice meeting was well-attended in-person, with over 40 participants from Australia,
Bangladesh, Japan, South Korea, and The Philippines. Online sessions also allowed
several international participants to attend or present throughout the two days
Ideas for growing and sustaining existing educational pathways:
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Focus on language training before students commence their undergraduate studies.
Develop campus support groups to help students navigate university life, as well as
providing contacts with local students.
Think of ways to promote the program but not the students.
Host information sessions to advertise the program to potential donors or
benefactors.
Facilitate fundraising activities for the refugee students (e.g. on-campus bake sales,
performances, fun runs).
Solicit pledges from the faculty members.
Petition government to provide additional support where needed (such as access to
medical services).
Raise awareness within the student body of humanitarian issues and the presence ofrefugees on campus.
Raise awareness about the complementary education pathway programs (and theneed for donations) through alumni and well-known people, and via social media.
Encourage university leadership to match donations by faculty, alumni, and students.
Raise awareness through celebrating pioneers/ ﬁrst graduates of the program (while
being mindful of ethics and the students’ right to anonymity).
Focus resources on board examinations to secure a license to facilitate future
employment.
Prompt universities to consider supporting post-graduate studies after the students’completion of the undergraduate program.

Actions for the Asia-Paciﬁc Region Complementary Education Pathways
Community of Practice• Formalise the APCoP by developing an online presence, whether on the GTF website
or a separate site to grow the network, to share good practice, and to distributeinformation across the region.
§ Regularly post on the APCoP page about various events, information,
opportunities, impact, webinars, and meetings.
§ Host regular online meetings for APCoP representatives to meet
• Set up an evaluation and research special interest group• Map the institutional Representation and disciplinary representation across the
APCoP• Undertake a cost-benefit analysis that will help market the programs.

Educational pathways across the Asia Paciﬁc
The Philippines
In the Philippines, six universities and the 14 students studying in what they call the‘CPath program’. The six participating universities are:
1. University De La Salle - Araneta
2. University De la Salle - Bacolod
3. Tarlac State University
4. Columban College
5. San Beda University
6. St-Louis University
In essence, the UNHCR, The Department of Justice of the Philippines (DOJ) and the
involved learning institutions work to allow students in situations of forced mobility the
chance to attend higher education in The Philippines. Each learning institution is
responsible to ﬁnd the funding for the day-to-day well-being of the students and puts inplace a local network to support them to the completion of the program of study.
Japan
In 2017, the Japan Association for Refugees (JAR) launched a pilot program to admit
Syrian refugee students in Turkey to language schools in Japan. Shortly after, the JapanICU Foundation (JICUF) and JAR launched the first private sponsorship program forrefugees at a Japanese university by recruiting Syrian students to International Christian
University (ICU). Then in 2022, JICUF and Pathways Japan (PJ), an organisation which
emerged from JAR to exclusively manage pathways programs, were entrusted with therecruitment of Ukrainian students to 18 universities in Japan. As mentioned below,
these universities formed a network called the Japan Education Pathways Network(JEPN) and continue to recruit additional students.
As for government-sponsored programs, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
has been administering the Japanese Initiative for the Future of Syrian Refugees (JISR),
also since 2017. The program recruits Syrian students in Lebanon and Jordan to enter
postgraduate programs at Japanese universities. From 2017 to 2023, close to 80
students were admitted along with more than 70 family members.
Australia
Since June 2023, the federal Australian government has been working with key groups,
primarily the Refugee Education Special Interest Group (RESIG), Community Refugee
Sponsorship Australia (CRSA), and the newly-formed Australian Refugee Welcome
University Sponsorship Consortium (ARWUSC), to co-design a blueprint for the RefugeeStudent Settlement Pathway (RSSP). The proposal for the RSSP is currently with thefederal Minister for Immigration, with hope for an announcement in 2024.

Reﬂections on key discussions

Day 1: Best Practices and Challenges in Complementary Education Pathways
Overwhelmingly, the most consistent and signiﬁcant challenge relates to a lack of
suSicient and sustainable funding to both support the existing scholars, and to grow the
programs in the Philippines and Japan. When discussing funding, colleagues often wrote
the word in capital letters in their reﬂections and notes, to signify the strength of thechallenge.
For the other countries represented who do not currently have, or at the pilot phase of,educational pathways, the challenges are broadly at the level of limited government
support (Korea); massive displacement (Bangladesh); and timing (Australia).
In our discussions, we predominantly discussed the case of the Philippines because we
had CPath students in attendance. However, many of these themes resonate withstudents in Japan, and with the examples discussed in the 2023 GTF CoP meeting.
What have refugee students told you has been the most challenging aspect ofsettling at their new school in the Philippines?
Everyday life
§ Language: most people speak Tagalog for daily communication. Many Filipinos
are afraid to speak English because they are afraid to be wrong.
§ Funds: students do not receive enough money to live easily; students are
discouraged from working so they can focus on their studies.
§ Money management: students cannot easily open bank accounts or use g-cash
as non-citizens.
§ Cultural diSerence #1: food. Filipino love pork, making it diSicult to ﬁnd halal
options.

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Cultural diSerence #2: stigma and misconceptions about refugees. Some
Filipinos do not understand their cultural uniqueness.
Psychological problems: homesick, sadness, separation anxiety, guilt.
Lack of travel documentation means that students cannot travel to visit family.
Internet connectivity: The connection is often slow, making it diSicult for CPath
students to communicate with their families, which contributes to mental healthchallenges.
Religious considerations: Many students live far from the mosque.
Healthcare: students do not have access to full medical services. While they canaccess the campus doctor or dentist (where available), this is not always
suSicient to cover more complex issues. One student had to use her stipend tocover the costs of a private dentist.

Educational challenges§ Limited awareness: Not all educators are knowledgeable about the CPATH
program, especially in public universities§ Board exams: The board exam is an issue. Licensure exams are needed to be
employed. Students are concerned about how they will be supported to ﬁnd work
(such as ﬁnding volunteer experience)§ Education systemic diSerences: There are big diSerences with the Malaysian
education system§ Religion/ Local context classes: Students report challenges with the religious
Subject (not really a concern but more of an observation about its novelty, and the
mandatory Filipino Subject.
§ Language of instruction: Some educators teach in Tagalog, making it diSicult for
CPath (and other international students) to understand.
§ Accommodation: some campuses have no availability in dormitories, meaning
only a limited number of students can be accommodated.
What is preventing you from growing your program?
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Funding was identiﬁed as the main barrier to the growth of the program by theparticipating schools because CPath scholarships are not included in the regularbudget.
Human resources: Universities do not have adequate human resources.
Limited awareness of the CPath program, both internally within the participating
six universities, and externally.
University regulations can limit the ways that universities can help (with tuition,staS support, access to guidance counsellors, medical treatment).
Political considerations: Local government create opportunities and challenges
because while they might to respond to humanitarian concerns, but they may not
be able to scale in response as they also have to (appear to) support their local
marginalised constituents.

What is working well in your program?
▪ Partnership: The partnership between the UNHCR, the DOJ and the learning
institutions, either private or public. Hopefully can we tap more universities to‘adopt’ the program.
▪ Guidance centres: Guidance centres are eSective, especially when students

change their majors.
▪ Local language and history classes: They provide international students with theinformation and tools that facilitate their stay in the Philippines.
▪ Buddy system: The “local buddy” system was put in place to help international
students gain knowledge about the local community, such as the appropriate
place of worship or halal food stores. Buddies making sure that the students hadaccess to the kitchen also helped them preserve their culinary culture andindependence.
▪ Donations and support from faculty: This was proven essential to the ﬁrst cohortof students. The completion of their studies will be an indicator of the success ofthe program and could be mentioned in future funding discussions.
What could be improved?
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Create a guidebook on how the CPath programs operate to assist new
universities who join the program.
Develop a network to publicly share best practices, challenges, ideas(complementing the existing Viber group that universities use).
Develop a more streamlined system that can assist universities to find andsecure funding.

Day 2: Building national consortia of universities
We heard two presentations about university consortia that already exist in the Asia
Pacific region
Japan: As a response to humanitarian crisis, Japan Education Pathways Network (JEPN)
was founded in 2022, which currently consists of 24 members of universities andfoundations. JEPN brings together higher education institutions, governmental agencies,
non-proﬁt organizations, and other stakeholders to create and expand education
pathways in Japan.
JEPN mission:• SHARE: Share information on the minimum standards and best practices in
education pathways through online resources, webinars, and events.
• BUILD CAPACITY: Build members’ capacity to develop and implement education
pathways through workshops and peer-to-peer exchange.
• COLLABORATE: Promote collaboration among members in the design andimplementation of education pathways program.
• SUPPORT: Create a broad support network for refugee students.
• INCREASE AWARENESS: Increase awareness of education pathways andadvocate for their expansion among relevant stakeholders in Japan.
• FUNDRAISE: Engage in joint fundraising.
JEPN currently working for:• Joint recruitment and admission through education pathways (Japan Education
Pathways).
• Bi-monthly meetings of faculty and staS members of universities (online or inperson.
• Meetings of welcoming students and refugee students.
• Reunion Day of students.
• Mobilizing refugee students as support staS members.
Agenda in the past meetings include:• On-arrival support.
• Mental and psychosocial support.
• Documentation in exams (UNESO Convention).
• Language exams (Duolingo).
• Integration in community.
• Local language acquisition required for academic study and job hunting.
• Preparedness for job-hunting.
• Introduction of Complementary Protection by the government.
JEPN Student Meeting@ICU

Australia: the recent establishment and launch of the Australian Refugee Welcome
University Sponsorship Consortium (ARWUSC) has brought 13 public universities,
representing the geographic spread and sectoral diversity of Australian higher education,
together to co-design the blueprint for the Refugee Student Settlement Pathway (RSSP).
This forms a proposal for government approval that has been sent to the Minister for
Immigration for consideration within cabinet processes.
In the following discussion about the possibility of creating national consortia in othercontexts, we heard the following arguments for this:
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Create one point of coordination (with government, UNHCR, othercomplementary pathway implementers, civil society organisations, potential
funders).
Communicate consistently with all partners (universities, UNHCR, government,
funders).
Advocate to peak body associations (such as the Commission for Higher
Education in the Philippines) who act as the regulators and accreditors of bothprivate and public universities.
To advocate to the government as a united voice on issues such as providing
healthcare and other supports.
Simplify processes for funders. All donations should go to one umbrella and be
distributed to universities according to students’ needs.
Share good practice, concerns, questions, advice (such as how to open bankaccounts, how to navigate immigration processes) between participating
universities.
Promote CPath and success stories throughout the higher education sector, andin the public arena.
Coordinate evaluation of and research on the pathways.

Employability and post-graduation outcomes
In Japan, Pathways Japan/Japan ICU Foundation (PJ/JICUF) model was originallydesigned and launched in 2017, integrating Japanese language education for two years
and connectivity for employment in its Education Pathways Programs, as a preventive
measure for the week asylum system in the country.
§ From among the 40 Syrians who have been admitted in Japan-Syria Language School
Pathways Program, 7 students who sought employment have found a full-time
employment. Field of employment: Graphic design, System engineer, Pharmacy,
Automobile industry, English education, Architecture.
§ After March 2022 when the government started a generous humanitarian policy foradmission of Ukrainians, PJ/JICUF expanded its program to admit 108 Ukrainian
students with 18 university and 23 language school partners .It also increased
partnership with companies to oSer skill training program as below.
o Mentorship and Apprenticeship with Bloomberg§ Mentorship for CV writing, interview and career planning.

Apprenticeship to work at Bloomberg for a year to have working
experiences.
o Online IT skill training with SAP§ OSering SAP Learning Journeys to learn about SAP products with free
vouchers.
§ Internship opportunities at companies in SAP ecosystem.
PJ/JICUF also oSer a meeting occasions with companies:o Info session/ Free talk with individual companies§ Medical and Biological Laboratories Co. Ltd. Organized a free talksession with its employees.
§ Suntory organized an Info Session for students in education pathways
programs.
o Convention of companies§ OSering opportunities for various companies to know better about
recruitment of students with refugee backgrounds and creating acommunity of companies§ In 2023, 15 companies including Suntory, Rakuten, PERSOL,
AstraZeneka, Evonic Japan, JERA, Airbnb Japan, Lush Japan took partand the event resulted in internship opportunities.
Job-hunting fair and Japanese classes for job-huntingo OSering opportunities both for the companies and students to know the otherbetter and help students better prepared for the job-hunting.
o In 2023, 10 companies including Shiseido, Fast Retailing, PERSOL, EvonicJapan, Airbnb Japan, Lush Japan, Tokyo YMCA took part and resulted ininternship and employment opportunities.
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Job-hunting fair in Oct 2023 @Sacred Heart University

Measuring impact
The potential of evaluation and research to tell compelling stories to encourage growthand sustainability of complementary education pathways was a point of discussion, inparticular, the kinds of measures we want to achieve. To help articulate this, the team inAustralia have co-designed a Theory of Change to underpin the intended robust, multipartner, longitudinal evaluation & research plan for the Refugee Student Settlement
Pathway (RSSP; see Appendix A).
What should we measure?
§ What can be done, what worked, what didn’t work, what should be improved.
§ Different institutions and institutional arrangements, including:o Comparisons across pathways (inter/national)o Private and public universities
o Nationwide
o Regional.
§ Partnerships between stakeholders.
§ Public perceptions.
§ Media and publicity reach.
§ Student achievements (during studies, post-graduate destinations, paid
employment).
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Mixed methods, collaborative/participatory evaluation and research.
Descriptive statistics because funders and donors expect these
Qualitative case studies of students’ experiences and successes.
Include as many stakeholders as possible, including pathway students and local
students.
Systematise ethical data sharing.

If we tell stories of success eSectively, we can build networks to inspire other people andinstitutions to accept refugees. Research can be transformed into policy papers, which
can be helpful for government units, potential donors, and intragovernmentalorganisations.

Thanks to the organising team:
Ian Mcgrath and team at the Canadian Embassy to the Philippines

Andyo Abusmas and team at De la Salle Philippines
Aki Takada from Japan ICU Foundation
Norimasa Orii from Pathways Japan
Sally Baker from RESIG/ the Australian National University

Appendix A: Example of a Theory of Change from Australia