This month we were delighted to gather with over 20 London-based universities and charity organisations to give information about accessing university for people seeking sanctuary.

Over 70 people attended and there was great networking and information sharing between local universities and organisations supporting people seeking sanctuary.

We were grateful to be joined by universities and organisations who held information stalls providing advice and details about their access schemes to different university programmes, and training, as well as access to employment information by expert charities. The event also included workshops to give prospective applicants an insight into preparing for university, applying to student finance, eligibility for loans, as well as writing a university application and the UCAS system.

This Open Day was a way to kickstart a regional network – a collaboration between universities in London that offer support and access pathways schemes to people seeking sanctuary. There are many great opportunities to access HE in London across a variety of specialisms, but awareness and reaching out to the communities that can benefit from them is very needed. We hope the collaboration will result in fruitful partnerships, conversations, and learning to improve practice and admissions processes as well as building awareness about HE access for communities in London and regions nearby.

We were fortunate to be hosted by our wonderful colleagues at Birkbeck,University of London in their Access and Engagement Team who co-organised the event and made it possible. We want to say a huge thank you to the participating universities and organisations below who made this day a success and helped prospective applicants learn about possible and accessible opportunities for them in London.