In the News

The harrowing tale of an IIE-SRF fellow's escape from Mosul in 2014 as it was under the control of the Islamic State.

A look at the experiences of IIE-SRF fellows who are hosted in New Jersey.

For Syrian students now living in Turkey, the path through higher education is far from smooth. “Higher education is an incredibly important alternative to more negative outcomes: crime, radicalization, and early marriage for young women,” King said. “Education can provide a pathway to integration within the country and durable solutions for Turkey and Syria.”

The Vanderbilt Political Review profiled IIE-SRF Alumnus Issam Eido, who escaped Syria toward the start of the conflict there.

From across the Mediterranean Sea at the University of Florence, a Syrian economist called Ahmad Sadiddin is modelling the financial implications of global warming for four Arab countries: Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt.

“We have an in-depth analysis on this by piecing together whatever data is available,” explains Sadiddin, “Rainfall across the MENA region, especially in Mediterranean countries, is going to decrease and agriculture consumes 80 percent of water in the region.”

The Jamiya Project is an ambitious blended learning program that aims to help refugees pursue their college dreams.

The course will follow the curriculum of and—significantly, be accredited by—Gothenburg University in Sweden, though Jamiya is still awaiting approval to allow its credits to be transferable to other schools. The accreditation piece is crucial, according to James King, assistant director of the Scholar Rescue Fund at the New York-based Institute of International Education. Though still valuable regardless, the majority of online course offerings have not been able to offer students courses that count toward a degree, he notes.