Financing Higher Education Pathways for Students with a Refugee Background
Mixed or Blended Financing
A financing approach that intentionally combines multiple types of contributions, such as cash and in-kind, public and private, institutional and external sources, in a coherent system to cover the full cost of a higher education pathway. It emphasizes the perspective on the source of the funding.
Mixed or blended financing is a good practice for refugee education pathways because it reflects the structural reality that no single actor can sustainably cover all costs.
Pooled Resources
A financing arrangement where cash and in-kind contributions from multiple sources or donors are combined or jointly managed through a shared or aligned mechanism.
This typically involves small amounts relative to the total scale, such as personal micro-contributions. However, larger-scale pooling can also be used to improve coordination. Pooling is not a prerequisite for management, but it can reduce fragmentation, increase predictability and strengthen accountability. It facilitates the distribution of responsibilities according to goals and comparative benefits.
Cash Support
Direct financial contributions that fund student costs and enable participation across the education pathway. Cash support may include scholarships, stipends, grants, transport costs, emergency assistance, paid placements or other direct payments to students or payments made on their behalf for services.
Cash support should be predictable, sufficient, and transparent, and should not create coercive obligations, dependency, or hidden conditions.
In-kind Support
Non-cash contributions that reduce direct costs or enable programme delivery. In-kind support may include tuition and accommodation waivers, academic and administrative services, mentoring, language support, free childcare support, counselling, access to facilities and staff time.
In-kind support is a core component of financing and should be valued, documented, and administered in the same way as cash support.
Predictability
The extent to which financial and in-kind support is secure and committed over the duration of the education of a specific student. It enables confident planning of the studies and lives for the student. Predictability emphasises the financing of an individual student.
Predictability is a core ethical requirement of responsible financing.
Sustainability
The ability to maintain financing arrangements and management structures for an extended period. It enables confident planning so that students with predictable funding can enter the pathway over multiple years. Sustainability emphasises the ability to finance new students to enter the education pathway.
Awareness of limits to sustainability enables forward planning and avoids sudden shocks that threaten the longevity of an education pathway initiative.
Accountability
The clear allocation of responsibilities, authority and decision-making across stakeholders involved in financing. Accountability includes transparent financial management, governance arrangements, reporting obligations, and accessible feedback or complaint mechanisms.
Accountability ensures that commitments are delivered as agreed, funds are managed ethically, and students can raise concerns safely without risk to their support or status.
Income-linked Financing
Financing arrangements where support for study costs is linked to post-graduation income or employment outcomes. An example is an Income Sharing Agreement (ISA).
Such models require robust safeguards for students with refugee backgrounds. These safeguards include informed, voluntary participation; proportional, capped repayment terms; hardship protections; independent advice; legal compliance; and a clear separation from immigration or legal status. Income-linked financing imposes future responsibilities on a student, so it should be viewed as context-specific and high-risk.