King’s Sanctuary Programme

The UK Government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme enables people living in the UK to sponsor a named Ukrainian national or family to live with them, for a minimum of six months. Hosts sponsoring under this scheme provide appropriate accommodation and receive £350 pcm as a contribution to costs of hosting.

Since March 2022, the King’s Sanctuary Programme Team has worked with Citizens UK, Ukrainian Sponsorship Pathway UK (USPUK) and three other universities to lead the development and delivery of the University Sponsorship Model that enables the higher education sector to best implement the Government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme and help displaced students and academics to keep engaged with their studies and research.

The universities use a relational matching process to match hosts from their communities with guests identified and screened by USPUK. Matches are made based on information that guests and hosts provide, such as common subject interests, preferred location and accommodation available. Training is provided on all aspects of the hosting process, including safeguarding, post-arrival support and moving on after six months.

In addition to providing holistic support for guests and hosts, dedicated teams at each partner university work to facilitate students’ access to education and enable academics to continue their research and find employment opportunities. For example, King’s hosts have provided short-term accommodation for recipients of our Sanctuary Scholarships and British Academy’s Researchers at Risk Fellowships.

The implementation of the University Sponsorship Model will be evaluated in order to share learnings and contribute to national and international policy processes on safe and legal pathways. The broader ambition of this work is to create education-led pathways for displaced students and academics from across the world.

Find out more about the University Sponsorship Model

Reigster your interest in hosting a displaced student or academic

In February 2020, King’s was named the first Refugees Welcome University by community organising charity Citizens UK. The Refugees Welcome accreditation scheme recognises universities that have made a commitment to welcome forced migrants into their institution and community, offer a comprehensive programme of education and research on migration, and develop an action plan to improve the lives of forced migrants in the UK.

As part of our commitment to support refugees, King’s worked in partnership with Citizens UK, the Home Office and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to become the first university to be accredited as a Community Sponsor as part of the UK Refugee Community Sponsorship Scheme. In December 2021, King’s became the first UK university to resettle a refugee student and their family under this scheme.

The King’s Refugee Community Sponsorship Scheme has provided an opportunity for a refugee student, who has been displaced as a result of the Syrian conflict, and their family to find a new and welcoming home in London. The eldest child has received a scholarship to undertake an undergraduate degree at King's in September 2022.

Having established this university community sponsorship scheme, the project team hope to set a precedent for other UK Higher Education Institutions to become community sponsors and are keen to share their knowledge and experience. The King’s Refugee Community Sponsorship model was developed via an ESRC Impact Acceleration Grant to encourage and support other universities to help resettle refugees as part of a wider ambition to develop new education-led complementary pathways for forcibly displaced people worldwide.

Find out more about King's accreditation as the first 'Refugees Welcome University'

Find out more about the King's Refugee Community Sponsorship Scheme

Find out more about Citizens UK

Find out more about Community Sponsorship

King’s College London is a supporting organisation of City of Sanctuary and has signed the national organisational pledge:

We support the ‘City of Sanctuary’ vision that the UK will be a welcoming place of safety for all and proud to offer sanctuary to people fleeing violence and persecution. We endorse the City of Sanctuary Charter, and agree to act in accordance with City of Sanctuary values and apply the network principles within our work (as far as our specific context enables us to). We recognise the contribution of refugees and people seeking sanctuary to British society. Sanctuary seekers are welcomed, included and supported within our organisation. We expect our branches or local groups (if any) to support their local City of Sanctuary group if one exists, and will facilitate contact between them and their local City of Sanctuary group. We are willing for our organisation’s name to be added to a list of supporters of City of Sanctuary, linked to our website. We are also willing to be contacted by City of Sanctuary with further ideas for how we can turn our support into practical action and to discuss ways we might work together to promote the vision further.

Find out more about City of Sanctuary

Read King's College London's City of Sanctuary pledge

At King’s College London we recognise that any legal background of involuntary immigration can have a significant impact on educational opportunities and outcomes, and therefore provide pre-entry and on-course support to forced migrant students. This includes the following:

• Pre-university support – King’s recognises the challenges faced by forced migrant students and offer extensive support before they start at university. This includes the K+ programme for Year 12 and 13 students from Greater London and some of the surrounding areas. If you are a forced migrant student, your application to K+ would be prioritised.

• Application support – King's has a designated member of staff (pre-entry), who can assist forced migrant students with all aspects of the application process. You can talk about course choices, receive feedback on a draft personal statement, tips on interviews as well as guidance on King's other support services.

• Additional admissions consideration – If you are a forced migrant and applying to study at King’s, we strongly advise you to disclose this directly to us. This will allow admissions staff to take your circumstances into consideration and will not have a negative impact on your application. We use this data to holistically assess an applicant’s future potential to succeed and to differentiate between similar highly qualified candidates.

• Applying for student finance – King’s can offer support to forced migrant students in identifying whether they are eligible for student finance based on their immigration status. If students are not eligible, we can help explore other avenues of financial support.

• Financial support – King’s has a number of scholarships specifically for forced migrant students. Details of these scholarships are below.

• Support for students at university – Starting university is a very exciting time but it can also be overwhelming. King’s recognises that it can be particularly daunting if you have come from a forced migrant background or if you have a challenging home situation so we have support available to help manage the transition to university. This includes bespoke inductions and The Buddy Scheme. We also have a designated advisor for sanctuary scholars currently at King's who can help with any queries about higher education, whether that be about accommodation, studying or finances.

Find out more about support for forced migrant students

Since 2016, King’s has provided Sanctuary Scholarships for students who are asylum seekers or have been granted limited leave to remain and have no access to Student Finance. The scholarships comprise full tuition fee support and help with living costs per academic year of an undergraduate programme. To date, King’s has provided 39 scholarships .

We have a designated advisor for sanctuary scholars currently at King's. They can help with any queries about higher education, whether that be about accommodation, studying or finances.

One of the most recent recipients said: ‘This Sanctuary Scholarship is hope renewed for me and my family. Words can’t truly express my gratitude, it is a blessing and a fresh start for me. My aspirations to go to a world-renowned university and begin to realise my career ambitions are being fulfilled and it all feels like a dream!’ 

Find out more about the King's Sanctuary Scholarships

Find out more about support available at King’s for forced migrant students

PADILEA was formed to meet the educational needs of refugees affected by the Syrian war and disadvantaged local youth in Jordan and Lebanon. Running from 2016 to 2022, this innovative partnership consists of King’s (led by Dr Tania Lima, Director of Global Engagement), Al Al-Bayt University in Jordan, and the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, as well as Kiron Open Higher Education (a digital-education NGO) and FutureLearn (a leader in online learning). To meet the diverse needs of the students, their individual interests and immediate goals, the PADILEIA project team developed a three-pronged approach, which included eight bespoke online courses, a blended foundation programme, and self-paced study tracks with locally recognised course modules. To aid students’ learning, study hubs were set up in Jordan and Lebanon where students had access to facilitators, computers and internet, as well as wrap-around support and a sense of community.

The eight online bespoke PADILEIA courses were designed by King’s Online and King’s Faculties. The course subjects were chosen based on needs assessment and knowledge from partners on the gap between school-leavers and university entry requirements. Courses were developed to be mobile friendly and optimised for low bandwidth so that the learners could easily access them from anywhere and continue their studies.

Over 13,000 self-identifying refugees and disadvantaged young people in Lebanon and Jordan participated in one of the bespoke online courses, and more than 1 million learners have enrolled worldwide. In addition, over 1,000 students participated in the blended programmes, with 510 students following PADILEIA’s innovative Foundation Programme and 102 graduates going on to continue their education and enrol at university, studying over 20 different subjects.

Find out more about PADILEIA

King’s scholars develop world class research that impacts on the issues of refugees, migration and borders through a range of research centres, projects and events, which actively engage King’s staff and students as well as the wider community. King’s hosts the Migration Research Group and the Centre for Migration and Resettlement. Recent projects include Moving Hearts, Migrant Voices in London and Enacting border security in the digital age.

Find out more:

Migration Research Group

Centre for Migration and Resettlement

Moving Hearts

Enacting border security in the digital age

Migrant Voices in London

Kneading Knowledge

Researching the experiences of refugees, migration and social exclusion

Refugee Mental Health & Place Network

The topic of migration and refugees features in curricula across the university through both standard modules and innovative learning initiatives. The latter includes the development of the service module ‘Migration, Social Justice and Community Organising’, which combines class-based learning with societal impact as students develop and run a community organising campaign with Citizens UK.

King's Legal Clinic offers free legal advice to students and staff at King’s and members of the public, including people with a forced migration background. The Clinic is run in partnership with Duncan Lewis Immigration and Asylum Clinic.

Find out more about King's Legal Clinic

King's Student Action for Refugees (KCL STAR) is a student-run organisation that aims to raise awareness of refugee issues and promote the integration of refugees and asylum seekers into society. STAR volunteers work at three programmes for students from refugee backgrounds in London, including homework clubs and an outreach programme focusing on how to apply to university in the UK.

Find out more about KCL STAR