UCPH refugee plea on Danish PM's summit agenda

Management at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) will be at the Danish Prime Minister’s summit Thursday on the Danish response to the refugee crisis. Here UCPH will propose a task force that will get rid of administrative barriers keeping refugees from gaining access to education.

The Minister of Education Esben Lunde Larsen has still not replied to an open letter on educating refugees at UCPH from Rector Ralf Hemmingsen sent on 9 September. The summit is organised by the PM and is meant to address how civil society can help handle the stream of refugees arriving in Denmark.

“We are looking forward to the discussions … on how we can best benefit from the skills of the refugees and support their way to the labour market,” prorector Lykke Friis stated to altinget.dk.

Læs mere:

Let refugees study at UCPH – open letter from Rector

Other universities in support of UCPH idea

The Issues hindering refugees from entering education are for example that refugees need a CPR-number to be enrolled, reports Altinget.dk. CPR numbers for university are behind multiple administrative issues that the University Post has exposed in several articles.

The universities interest group Danish Universities is backing UCPH in their efforts.

It is the legal status of the refugees that is presently stopping them from being admitted, and this makes Rector of DTU Anders Bjarklev less optimistic: “It is clear that a system cannot be put in place from one day to the other, but I am hoping for a good and constructive dialogue about the possibilities for realising the idea,” he said.

universitypost@adm.ku.dk

Do you have a good story? We would like to hear from you. In the meantime, like us on Facebook for features, guides and tips on upcoming events and follow us on Twitter for links to other Copenhagen academia news stories.