The role of higher education institutions and support entities in creating open technological solutions for language learning by refugees and migrants

Abstract

This paper discusses the ways in which support entities and higher education institutions can collaborate in order to help refugees become integrated in the host society, notably Spanish society. While support entities play a crucial role at the early stages by providing refugees with aid addressing some of their most basic needs, these early interventions often serve as a springboard for the later access of refugees to higher education. 

While there are abundant volunteering efforts, mostly revolving around the work done by support entities, the aid coming from institutional agents is far from sufficient. This should not be put down to a lack of compromise from such institutions but rather to the difficulties involved in setting the bureaucratic machinery in motion.

On the other hand, an example of how research groups at universities can help refugees and migrants is that of the MOOCS created in the context of the MOONLITE project, which have obtained official recognition by the UNED. In this way, before actually obtaining access to tertiary degrees, refugees can reap benefits from their efforts to learn the language by receiving an official certification for the MOOCS completed.