Chapter 9: Moving Forward: What Can We Do?

This chapter opens with an optimistic appraisal of how far the UK and Australian HE sectors have come in terms of developing increased visibility refugee students in the system, the efforts to open access to people from asylum-seeking backgrounds, and intentions to open spaces for voice and ownership in both pedagogic and research interactions for refugees. In particular, it will outline the emergence of advocacy – activist networks in the UK and Australia that are working collectively to lobby for better educational policies and supports for refugee students. We also indicate those ways of thinking and researching refugee experiences which can help ensure that prevailing deficit discourses are elided and the agency and strategising of refugee students are foregrounded. This includes way of thinking theoretically, methodologically and ethically about refugees’ experiences. We end with a reminder that collective endeavours offer greater possibilities for transformative HE practices than do individualised, small-scale, institutional approaches.