Catalan universities celebrate ten years of commitments to refugees
The UAB organised and hosted a conference to take stock of ten years of the university-refugee programmes and, at the same time, to work together on the establishment of a Protocol of guidelines for the academic reception of refugees. The event was held on Thursday 16 October.
17/10/2025
This October the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) commemmorates ten years since the statement by the “Les universitats catalanes, amb les persones refugiades” by the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP), which marked the beginning of the first coordinated actions of the university system to defend the rights of forcibly displaced people.
As part of this 10-year anniversary, the conference "2015-2025. Ten years of Universities and Refuge" took place in the UAB Rectorate building on 16 October. The event was organised by the UAB Refugees Programme, managed by the Fundació Autònoma Solidària, and was a space for celebration and reflection among Catalan public universities, civil society and public administration. The activity was part of the work plan of the Technical Network for Cooperation, Volunteering and Refuge of the Interuniversity Council of Catalonia and received the support of the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation (ACCD).
The inaugural event was attended by Andrea Costafreda, general director of the ACCD, who congratulated the universities on their ten years of commitment to refugees and stressed that, "in a world with growing conflicts and restrictions on democratic freedoms, cooperation for transformation requires protection of women rights defenders" and spoke of a necessary "protection ecosystem".
The secretary general of the Interuniversity Council of Catalonia, Xavier Martínez-Celorrio, highlighted that the number of refugees annually has doubled in the past ten years, a fact that reaffirms the importance of the commitment of universities. In the past 10 years, more than 500 scholarships have been awarded to refugees. He added that "in this new international disorder that we are experiencing, programmes like these are needed more than ever; universities are beacons". He also highlighted the UAB as a pioneering university in refugee programmes.
The UAB's secretary general, Esther Zapater, closed the inauguration by recalling the beginnings of the refugee programme following the war in Syria and highlighted the work carried out by the UAB: 150 mentoring pairs and 247 Refuge scholarships, with nearly 800 participants in awareness-raising and training activities in the curricula on migration, human rights and refuge.
The day included the artistic proposal "Yuyay: Memory", created and starring Edith Laverde, Colombian rights defender and PhD student at the UAB, who presented a moving monologue on memory, loss and resilience in tribute to her brother.
In the round table “University and Refuge: where do we come from and where are we going?”, moderated by Pamela Urrutia (School of a Culture of Peace), representatives of universities, organisations and refugees analysed the challenges of the future. Shurouq Alimam Alnajjar, a Palestinian student, expressed how proud he was to form part of the UAB and claimed the need for psychological support in refugee programmes. He also highlighted the importance of destigmatising refugees since they are professionals and agents of change who can contribute to their host countriesa. In this sense, he also made a request for more research linked to the field of refuge.
The director of the UB Solidarity Foundation, Xavier López Arnabat, recalled that Catalan universities in fact have been welcoming refugees for more than thirty years, and called for joint and coordinated action to guarantee the continuity of these programmes and strengthen their labour and social integration. Jordi Prat, director of the Fundació Autònoma Solidària, emphasised that the existence of these programmes “is already a success in itself,” and urged that they be consolidated as permanent structures, with greater support from the university system, with a rigorous evaluation of their results.
Laura Riba (manager of Irídia and member of the social entity La Fede) warned of the increase in conflict and the far right and criticised the lack of safe routes. As elements to continue working on and that need to be strengthened within the refugee programmes, she highlighted mentoring and tutoring and psychosocial care. As challenges, Riba pointed out that the scholarships need to provide more certainty about their continuity.
Finally, Estel·la Pareja, teacher, researcher and former director of the CCAR, highlighted the role of the university as a space of reparation and equal opportunities, and stressed the need to promote the reception of more women, improve the material conditions of grants, strengthen the accompaniment, and do more advocacy and provide support in all legal difficulties. Before ending the round table, Pamela Urrutia, researcher from the School of a Culture of Peace of the UAB, highlighted the key role of universities as social agents in the face of the increase in global conflict and hate speech, and the urgency of strengthening coordination between institutions.
During the event, the Protocol of guidelines for the academic reception of refugees was presented by Gemma Xarles (UOC), as coordinator of the CIC Technical Cooperation Network, as well as the good practices of several Catalan universities. Cati Jerez (UB), Gemma Ros (UdG), Àngels Sendra (UdL), Sara Vilar and Laia Llorens (UOC) presented the actions, measures and protocols of the universities they represent.
The participants subsequently worked and debated in groups on the measures that the Protocol of guidelines for the academic reception of people in refugee situations at Catalan universities must include so that it can be approved in November.
The closing speech, given by UAB Vice-Rector for International Relations Òscar Jané, highlighted a decade of joint work that has consolidated a university network committed to the right to refuge and the right to education. However, he did note that “I wish this programme were not necessary”. He concluded his speech by stating that, on the one hand, coordination between competent bodies is needed, not only from universities, and that a joint demand should be made by universities so that competent bodies and administrations facilitate the evacuation processes of people in situations such as the one recently experienced in Gaza, since they are not as functional as they should be.