Many refugees are young adults whose flight interrupts their education. Over recent years I have taken a lead within the University of Sheffield in ensuring that we can offer such individuals the chance to complete their university studies with us.  Until they are accorded formal refugee status (a process that can take several years) asylum seekers get no financial support for university fees or for their maintenance.  Two years ago, as part of the University's Executive Board and as chair of its admissions committee, I steered through a proposal that the University should make places available free of fees for asylum-seeker and refugee students: when fully operational we will have up to 8 such students studying subjects from Medicine to Architecture, Civil Engineering to Education.

We are now raising money to provide maintenance support for the daily living expenses of these students.  And we are also looking to support refugee academics whose careers have been interrupted by flight from persecution and violence.  The Nobel Prize-Winner Hans Krebs arrived in Sheffield as a refugee from Nazi intolerance over 75 years ago.  We acknowledge the contribution that such scholars can make to the life of this country, and the contribution we can make to re-establishing their careers in a new environment.  

Two groups of my colleagues are currently walking the Trans-Pennine Trail - one group starting on the East Coast and the other on the West.  I will be among a large set of people from across the University - staff and students - who will meet the two groups when they arrive at the mid-point of the Trail: we will then escort them back to the University - a distance of 18 miles in what is being labelled a 'One Day Challenge'.  

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