Welcome to the BHER Portal

Who We Are

The Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) Project is a development initiative housed at the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University. It aims to deliver university programs to refugees and local host communities in the northeastern Kenyan town of Dadaab. The project also seeks to accommodate refugee students who relocate or resettle elsewhere in Kenya or the world to the extent of its capacities.

What BHER Does

• Coordinates with Canadian, Kenyan and other universities to offer internationally recognized and accredited academic programs at the level of certificate, diplomas and degrees to refugee and local populations;
• Supports onsite and online program delivery through the BHER Learning Centre located in Dadaab;
• Facilitates continuation of online studies offered by BHER academic partners for BHER students relocated/resettled elsewhere in Kenya or in other countries.

Here’s what you will find on the BHER Portal

• Information about how to set up a program modelled after for Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) project
• Step by step descriptions that detail how we developed and delivered the BHER program over more than 5 years
• Templates and other documents that have proven useful to us in building the BHER project and that you may find helpful
• Commentary by those involved in BHER and interested others who have left their views on this site

BHER is more than just the facts about what is needed to develop and to mount a BHER program. It also provides perspective, advice, and documentation about a wide range of issues that affect program stakeholders and many others who are thinking of offering higher education to marginalized populations in the world.

Who is involved?

• Currently BHER consortium includes five partners: Kenyatta University, Moi University, University of British Columbia, York University and Windle International Kenya. York University leads the initiative;
• UNHCR offices in Nairobi, Dadaab and Kakuma support with technical advice on operations, supports students, advocate and help situate BHER project in the education initiatives for refugees;
• Members of the BHER Consortium are founders of the Connected Learning in Crisis Consortium (CLCC), an international network of institutions that deliver university education programs to refugees around the world. We work with members of this consortium to address the needs of refugees who resettle in places outside Dadaab.

For more information consult www.bher.org

Licensable Information, Permissions, and Media Inquiries

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

For Media Inquiries, please contact Don Dippo ddippo@edu.yorku.ca

Tell Us What You Think

There are places throughout this site where you can leave a comment or question about what you find here. Or you can leave a comment or question in the portal’s community forum.