Credit: Wings University

Holding a university degree is a major asset when entering the labor market. But obtaining a university degree is not exactly the simplest thing to get if you are a refugee fleeing from your home country, with no documents and, in most cases, very little economic resources.

The experimental project by the Wings University might provide a solution to the many obstacles that nearly every refugee and asylum seeker willing to get a degree in higher education stumbles upon in their new host country. The Wings University – a non-profit organization from Germany – gives the opportunity to get an internationally accredited degree that can be obtained through online classes, without the need to provide any specific legal or notarized document, as happens when applying for any other university in the world. Lifting this requirement would allow many asylum seekers who are still waiting for the confirmation of their status to start studying and, therefore, to have a higher chance of integrating faster into the host society. Indeed, the slogan of the Wings University is:

“Our main goal is to help refugees help themselves”

The philosophy at the heart of this quite unique educational project is a mix of strong belief in universal right to education and the awareness that a refugee holding a university degree will be able to find a good job more easily in the country of arrival and thus greatly contribute to the economic and cultural system of the host community.

Furthermore, one fundamental key point of the Wings University is that all educational services are provided for free. Being a non-profit organization, this online university heavily relies on public funding and donations and, from an academic perspective, it partners with several higher education institutions which provide their teaching services under specific conditions.

Due to its very recent launch, it would be erroneous to assess the success of the Wings University project. However, such great ideas deserve spreading and winning.