Chapter 5: Aaliyah’s Story

This chapter draws on a series of interviews and informal conversations with a single refugee, Aaliyah, a Guinean woman, to offer a close-up account of her journey into and through UK HE moving from aspirant applicant to qualified teacher. In doing so, it describes Aaliyah’s encounters with the policies and practices of a single, but representation, HE institution. The data, collated over a number of years, have been placed into chronologic order and mapped against key points in Aaliyah’s student journey, focusing on both her struggles and her successes.

The Republic of Guinea is located on the western coast of Africa. A predominantly Islamic country, with Muslims representing 85% of the population, Guinea was colonised by the French in the mid-nineteenth century, eventually becoming an independent republic in 1958. Its people belong to 24 ethnic groups and more than 24 indigenous languages are spoken although the main language is French.