The IKEA Foundation has pledged an additional £2 million to the Oxford Refugee-Led Research Hub (RLRH). Discussing plans for this funding, Rediet Abiy Kassaye, Programme Manager of the IKEA Foundation, told Cherwell the grant will especially enable “the RLRH to support its premises located in Nairobi […] and the expansion of its physical presence into the Kakuma refugee camp in Uganda.”
The RLRH – launched in 2020 with the financial backing of the IKEA Foundation – aims to address the lack of refugee-authored scholarship and the under-representation of student refugees in higher education. The RLRH seeks to redistribute opportunities to individuals from displaced backgrounds to enable them to effectively develop global migration policy and undertake individual research using their lived experience.
Only 1% of displaced people are in higher education, according to Universities UK. RLRH Research Officer Mohamed Hassan explained: “Growing up in Kakuma [Refugee Camp], I never imagined that I would return to the camp as someone who could represent what is possible for displaced people. During the outreach visit, the young people saw themselves in me […] for those who have experienced displacement, seeing someone with a shared background on the other side of the table is transformative.”
The RLRH has supported over 650 refugees in their progression into both professional and research careers. During its previous grant period, RLRH scholars produced twelve research publications, 8 of which have already been published. RLRH also expanded its hallmark academic bridging programme, RSC Pathways, which enrolled 120 students in 2024. This year, the course will be made publicly available to over 1,000 learners.
RLRH also facilitates the ‘Graduate Horizons’ support scheme. In 2024, over 40 participants of this project received offers to graduate degrees at universities, including many who have started fully-funded master’s and doctoral programmes at the University of Oxford. Kassaye told Cherwell: “All of this has demonstrated the effectiveness of the programme and its alignment with our grant-making goals.”
