Tribune News Network
New York City
Education Above All (EAA), The Afghan Future Fund (AFF), Schmidt Futures, the Yalda Hakim Foundation, the Qatar Fund For Development (QFFD), Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and the Institute of International Education (IIE) have announced the launch of the Qatar Afghan Scholarship Project (QASP). QASP is welcoming its first cohort of 250 displaced Afghan students to US colleges and universities for the 2022-2023 academic year.
Thanks to QASP, the students now have the opportunity to continue their studies on full scholarships at more than 40 colleges and universities in more than 17 states, including Rutgers University, Bard College and the University of Texas at Austin, among others. The students will be coming to the US from a number of countries where they were forced to seek refuge last year, including, northern Iraq, Kyrgyzstan and Albania. They will be enrolled in degree programmes in the arts, business, sciences, humanities and the social sciences.
The programme is particularly powerful considering the context, the scale of impact and the focus on empowering female Afghan students. Two hundred and fifty Afghan students, split equally among women and men, are being welcomed to US institutions to continue their education, grow their network, and explore new opportunities. It has been a year since these and other Afghan students left their home country, and QASP’s first cohort is just the beginning of this work. The project aims to welcome additional students in future academic terms.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees, only 5 percent of refugees have access to higher education, far below the global average of approximately 40 percent. QASP is the embodiment of our commitment to UNHCR’s “15by30” target, which aims to ensure that 15 percent of young refugee women and men can access higher education by 2030.
This landmark scholarship combines the passion, resources, and networks of diverse global education advocates and organisations who are united in their commitment to give Afghan refugee students a chance to complete their higher education. The Qatar Fund for Development works to achieve inclusive and sustainable development through their Qatar Scholarship Programme. Education Above All has a long history of providing scholarships for some of the world’s most marginalised post-secondary students, as well as advocating for access to learning and education protection in times of conflict and unrest. The Afghan Future Fund, which began with a partnership between Schmidt Futures and the Yalda Hakim Foundation, has grown from its initial mission to provide safety and security to displaced Afghan students and has scaled to empower Afghan students to achieve their full potential.
The Institute for International Education (IIE), which oversees multiple leading international scholarship programmes, as well as students and scholar rescue initiatives, will serve as the administrator of this scholarship programme, alongside ongoing support from the founding partners and U.S. institutions. Working across borders, the QASP partners demonstrate the power of collective action to create an effective, global initiative rooted in their mutual belief that access to education is essential and lifesaving.
EAA CEO Fahad Al Sulaiti added, “Ensuring that that young people, including the youth of Afghanistan, are able to continue their education despite all challenges is a top priority for us at EAA, because education is the key to ensuring a stable and thriving future. We look forward to continued work with our partners on finding pathways to higher education for the most marginalized students.”
Khalifa bin Jassem Al-Kuwari, Director General of QFFD added, “This programme is one of many programmes that we are either implementing or finish in the education sector to support the Afghan people. This project will support the Afghan students now and builds a foundation for greater prosperity of the country in the years to come.”
