Displaced students’ fair access to Higher Education in Scotland is a Duolingo English Test -funded project on English Language Proficiency Testing and Displaced Applicants in Scottish Higher Education. It is co-led by Prof Katerina Strani and Dr Eva Hanna at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.
UN Sustainable Development Goal 4.3 commits to radically increasing access to higher education for displaced and forced-migrant populations by 2030 (UNHCR, 2015). In Scotland, as in the wider UK, prospective students with forced-migration backgrounds continue to face complex legal, financial, informational, bureaucratic, mental-health and linguistic barriers to university entrance. This project focusses on linguistic barriers and, in particular, the question of equitable access to English-language proficiency assessment, which constitutes a high-stakes gatekeeping mechanism.
Across Scotland, university-based academics and professional services staff collaborate within and across institutions, often in partnership with third-sector organisations, to reduce English-language related barriers. Their advocacy includes resisting over-compliance with UKVI-aligned proficiency policies designed for fee-paying international students (policies that do not in fact apply to forced migrants); developing in-house assessments tailored to the circumstances of forced migrants; and working with established test providers, who in certain cases waive examination fees. However, barriers remain even when cost is mitigated. The considerable length and cognitive demands of standardised tests may disadvantage individuals with pre-flight trauma or post-migration stress. In parallel, logistical demands, such as the need to travel to centralised test centres, incur additional cost in time and money, and pose severe constraints for people with caring responsibilities or insecure housing.
The study involves three qualitative strands: (1) open-ended questionnaires to map the range of institutional practices and perceived barriers; (2) semi-structured in-depth interviews with key gatekeepers of high-stakes language assessment policy and practice; and (3) a multi-level stakeholder workshop convening academics, professional staff, sector bodies, test providers and third-sector actors. Findings will be synthesised to generate practical, evidence-based recommendations on how language proficiency assessment regimes can be made more inclusive, proportionate and context-sensitive for forced-migrant applicants to higher education in Scotland.
For more information on the project, please contact the Project lead Katerina Strani A.Strani@hw.ac.uk