CEU staff and faculty developed OLIve-WP as a programme to provide refugees and asylum seekers the tools to integrate either in an academic field or in the labour market, as well as to contribute to debates about the terms of their integration.

Many of refugee and asylum-seeking students have valuable professional experience but have trouble obtaining recognition of their experience. This is due to structural issues in host societies such as Hungary that make it difficult for refugees and asylum seekers to get recognition of their skills, as well as due to hostility fostered by government and media.

OLIve-WP is a full day of academic programmes taking place on Saturdays, normally from 10:00 to 17:00. The students receive a CEU visiting student card and are able to access all services provided by the university, such as the library, in the same way as other students. At the end of the term, the OLIve-WP participants can receive a diploma showing their successful completion of the programme.

While the exact structure of the programme has changed over time, the term of the programme generally follows the academic calendar of CEU. For the 2018-2019 academic year, the programme is taking place between February and June 2019. For this term, the programme has three tracks—academic, advocacy, and career.

Academic Track

The academic track is intended for students who plan to apply for a higher education programme in Hungary or other countries. Courses in this track focus on specific topics like Society and Culture, Politics and Policy, and History; academic skills; academic English; thematic seminars on subjects like international policymaking or environmental justice; and discipline-specific instruction for advanced students.

Advocacy Track

This track is for those who want to learn about advocacy and organising on social issues. Students will learn how to manage or organise a project/action and have the opportunity to work with experienced advocates, civil society leaders, and fellow students. Courses include media production, communication skills, English for advocacy, and a seminar with representatives from civil society organisations.

Career Track

The career track prepares students who do not want to pursue an academic career but rather want to improve their skills for the labour market. This includes working with a career professional to develop the student’s CV. Courses include oral and written presentation skills, English language, Microsoft Office, finance management, and project coordination.

In implementation, OLIve-WP has faced major challenges that are worth underlining:

• Legislation related to refugees and asylum seekers changed continuously and quickly, with direct impact on students and their ability to meet basic needs, as well as their ability to attend CEU programmes. At least four students were forced to leave the country because of conditions created by the withdrawal of assistance.
• The reception facility in Bicske closed. A number of OLIve-WP students had resided there and were relocated far from the university. Initially, they were not allowed to leave the new camp. CEU managed to obtain permission from the camp authorities to allow them to travel to Budapest by train for the programme. CEU bought the train tickets.

It is difficult to provide education to the students, particularly asylum seekers, without taking into account the various issues they face. The programme therefore provides a space for students to discuss their problems with qualified personnel, which could include issues with housing, health, legal concerns, or other aspects of their lives. OLIve-WP has partnered with NGOs and civil society organisations like Menedék and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee to provide consultations to students on these needs.

To help other universities establish similar programmes, OLIve-WP has published a best practices guide based on its experiences in helping refugee and asylum-seeking students. The guide provides an outline of the administrative challenges that such programmes may encounter. For example, while many universities require all enrolled students to show proof of health insurance, in some countries asylum seekers have difficulty accessing health insurance, so a budget for private health insurance may be needed.

The programme enrols 45 to 50 students every term. In the past, the programme was organised in three consecutive terms during the academic year, and usually about half of the students continued their studies from one term to the next. The number of women participating in the programme is increasing. At the beginning, the lack of women among the students was an issue. It appears that as women began to perceive the programme as a safe place, they started to enrol.

A number of OLIve-WP students have been able to access higher education. For example:

• The programme assisted two students with bachelor’s degrees in applying to CEU master’s programmes in Business Analytics and Public Policy.
• A student was accepted by a Master of Science (MSc) in Public Health programme at the University of Debrecen and has since been accepted to an MSc degree in Environmental Sciences at CEU.
• A student enrolled in an MSc Agricultural Sciences degree in Godollo, Hungary and is receiving assistance in his thesis work as part of the OLIve-WP tutorial.

Students have also been able to get jobs commensurate with their skills. Career training has helped students access the Hungarian job market, but more sustained work needs to be done in this regard. 

Another important result of the programme is its ‘export’ to other European universities. As part of an Erasmus+ consortium, OLIve programmes are being run at the University of Vienna and the University of East London. The weekend programme also led to the development of a full-time higher education preparatory programme called OLIve-UP.

At the end of each term, there is a meeting with students to receive feedback on the programme, which has been very positive. An internal evaluation of the programme was conducted by two CEU faculty members with previous experience in consulting and evaluation. Neither of them were involved in OLIve. They had access to all administrative and teaching materials, students’ reports, and attendance reports. They also observed the programme and attended classes. Finally, they interviewed a sample of students, administrative staff, teachers, and volunteers as well as the programme directors.

As of July 2017, the programme had plans to have an external evaluation carried out by parties outside CEU (for example, from civil society organisations).

The programme looks at the number of students enrolled and the number of new applicants each term. While enrolment and applications are difficult to assess, increases in these numbers generally point to a growing interest in the programme and the perception that the programme is a safe place for its students.

The main beneficiaries are refugee and asylum-seeking students. In addition, this programme has created a space that is often missing in the social and political environment of Hungary. The establishment of this space has therefore been a transformative experience for both students and volunteers involved.

Since the debut of OLIve-WP, many other universities have asked CEU for information in order to start thinking about implementing similar practices.

OLIve-WP receives funding from CEU and is co-funded by the EU Erasmus+ programme. The programme is coordinated by a five-person team. It also relies on volunteer work by CEU students, faculty, and staff. English teachers and tutors are paid. Volunteers and teachers come from a range of different CEU units. It is clear that funding sources must be diversified, and the programme has been looking for different sources of funding in cooperation with CEU fundraising offices.

An important consideration is that CEU is a private university, which has made implementation easier than it might be at a Hungarian public university, for example in the use of university facilities. The programme uses space and facilities of CEU and gives its students full access to all CEU facilities, including the library and computer labs. Moreover, OLIve-WP cooperates with the CEU media lab for film-making workshops and with the audio lab to produce podcasts with the students.

The programme also has an office in one of the CEU buildings and has access to common CEU resources available to other units/departments, such as phones, desks, and technological support. More information about the types of resources needed for this programme can be found in the best practices guide.