Dr Jonathan Birtwell

Jonathan has joined the King's Sanctuary Programme as a postdoctoral researcher. His research will focus on safe pathways for seeking asylum through higher education in the UK and how such programmes can be strengthened and expanded beyond the King’s University Sponsorship Model.

He completed his PhD in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge and his thesis explored the learner identities and trajectories towards higher education that developed by secondary level students with refugee backgrounds in Malaysia. Following this he undertook a short research fellowship at the University of Auckland that focused on developing policy guidance for higher education institutions in Malaysia based on his PhD research.

Methodologically his research seeks to take a participatory approach and uses interpretative phenomenological analysis. He is also a working group member for the RefugeEAP initiative and is on the steering committee for the CERTE programme, which is a higher education applications skills building course for students with refugee backgrounds in Malaysia.