Location and Space 

As explained in the scoping tool (see sections A and B), location matters: different locations (e.g. within a city, a region, or a country) afford different opportunities. The advantages and limitations of potential teaching locations, and the impact students’ locations have upon their ability to engage in an educational program, need to be fully understood by programme designers. At least four different lenses for consideration can be identified:

First, at a basic level it is ideal to locate the bridging program so that it is conveniently and inexpensively accessible from where the targeted student population resides. For university-affiliated bridging programs, this may mean operating the program away from the university campus. 

Second, education provision is shaped by the local socio-economic and cultural context; for instance, some sites are more desirable for qualified teaching staff to live in than others and attract the best teachers. Due to more reliable access to services and amenities, capital cities are often preferred locations for teachers and NGO workers than remote, rural locations with all the challenges associated with them. In contexts of inter-communal tension or conflict, certain locations may be associated with certain social groups making them less accessible to students from other social groups.  It is critical to ensure that such dynamics have as limited possible impact on refugee populations who may already be hampered by a lack of opportunities in their settlement location.

Third, different locations also allow different teaching infrastructures – including the physical classroom as well as access to technology and internet. A key question is whether a suitable infrastructure exists and, if not, whether one can be built. In areas such as densely populated refugee camps, it may be hard to find a building suitable for 20-30 adult learners, so budget may need to be kept aside for constructing a dedicated space (see examples from FFA and PADILEIA below) or the programme may have to be adapted in terms of structure/timings to enable students to reach a suitable location that may be some distance away. There might be a good rationale for creating a new infrastructure regardless of the actual constraints, in order to break away from places and dynamics associated with memories of struggle and hardship, or just to ensure that the space is free from interference from other actors – services ‘hubs’ for refugees can, for instance, be very busy places that would prove a constant sources of distraction for students.

Ultimately, the teaching site needs to be made equally accessible for all populations, which may require stipends to be ‘tiered’ depending on the actual costs incurred for students to reach classrooms or for sessions to be simultaneously online and in person. Transportation costs for teaching staff may also need to be factored into their compensation. 

Seasonal weather patterns may also impact students’ ability to be comfortable in the learning environment or to even get to class (e.g. heavy rains or snow, extreme heat). Appropriate structural design as well as potential heating or cooling measures are significant learning space considerations. When expected weather patterns may prevent students from getting to the classroom, preparing contingency plans ahead of time such as home learning or make-up days is helpful. In these times of pandemic, spatial considerations (e.g. ventilation, social distancing) for illness prevention and contingency plans for mandated closures and extended student absences are necessary. 

Other place-based factors affecting students’ ability to engage in an educational program also cannot be addressed through choice of location or spatial arrangements, rather they require contextualised adaptations and flexibility in program design and academic policies. Students have different levels of relative stability in terms of access to employment and accommodation depending on where they live, which has direct implications for their ability to engage in a focused way with their studies. Displaced populations in refugee camps, for instance, may have their studies interrupted by requirements to confirm their presence in the camp, or to collect rations when eligible to them (as we found in Uganda) while students in the private rental market in cities have to contend with the instability of this arrangement. These contextual factors need to be taken into account in the program design (for example, the timing of breaks in teaching, or flexibility for deadlines with a student facing housing crisis).

Finally, students’ access to electricity and internet away from the programme site will likely vary, which needs to be addressed in curriculum design; e.g. if students cannot easily charge their phones, synchronous online teaching should be kept short to conserve the students’ phone batteries.

FFA: city and settlements The students in the FFA programme were split across two different locations: one was a refugee settlement in rural Uganda, Kiryandongo, and the other was the capital city, Kampala. This meant that each cohort had very different access to employment, humanitarian infrastructures, and learning opportunities. In both cases, the students accessed a teaching infrastructure that pre-existed FFA and was set up for the English for Adult (EFA) courses developed by RLP over the years [see Languages section]. Kiryandongo has far less reliable internet and electricity supplies than Kampala, meaning that students struggled to continue learning remotely when Covid-19 forced a shutdown of the learning centres and also that they struggled to engage with online resources in general (including those emailed to them from tutors and mentees in the UK). The students in Kiryandongo also had, in general, lower levels of IT, English and Maths literacy than their peers in Kampala, which meant that their courses progressed at a slower pace. They also had more family responsibilities, meaning that their attendance was more frequently disrupted by obligations elsewhere. Students in Kampala nonetheless had to contend with high travel costs to reach the learning centres at RLP, the higher cost of living in general in Kampala coupled with the lack of humanitarian support provided to urban refugees in Uganda, and more extreme lockdowns in response to Covid-19 and political/terrorist incidents. They were nonetheless much closer to Makerere University and benefited from both a campus tour provided by a Congolese Masters student who was based there, and from in person discussions with faculty from the University. Students at Kiryandongo were able to engage with the Masters student online for a Q&A, but did not have the opportunity to visit the University until the entrance exam.  PADILEIA: building the teaching space The AUB team also wanted to establish their bridging programme close to where refugees were physically located in Lebanon, not least because of the expense and mobility challenges of expecting individuals to relocate to Beirut to access educational opportunities. They wanted the study hubs to be very physically accessible for Syrian students and so they located them in the Bekaa Valley where significant populations of Syrians are located. They also recognised the higher number of other NGOs in the Bekaa Valley who could provide complementary services and support to individuals enrolled on PADILEIA, which would make it easier for the students to pursue their studies. Finally, the specific location chosen within the Bekaa region is a community known to be more tolerant than others towards the refugee population. That supportive infrastructure, as well as the perceived availability and proximity of the study hubs, was critical to the success of the programme.  A central scalability feature of AUB’s foundation certificate design and delivery was its use of the AUB-CCECS “Ghata” school structures. These low-cost structures, which can be assembled (and disassembled) in hours by unskilled volunteers using locally-sourced materials, can serve as a model replicable study hub/computer lab, which embodies (a) economic efficiency and endurance, (b) simplicity and portability, (c) adaptability and scalability, and (d) climatic responsiveness. PADILEIA Bekaa campus was thus built by AUB and operated by a local educational NGO partner, the Kayany Foundation, who served as a key local partner and source of participants.