Wen-Yu Wu

Doctoral Researcher

Contact details: WXW779@student.bham.ac.uk

Current status

Second year

Research topic

Displaced Syrian students and higher education in Lebanon and Jordan

Research summary

This project, through the concept of hope, aims to first, explore the displaced students’ hopes—both material expectations and cultural and spiritual aspiration toward higher education and their own futures—how do these expectations reflect in the plans and actions in their everyday life? Second, the project intends to examine the hopes that are generated through the current humanitarian practices —what kind of hopes are encouraged? How do the students experience the possibilities provided by various initiatives? Third, the project concerns the strategies and plans the students and their families devise in order to respond to the hopes and expectations they encountered. Through the three guiding aspects, this project aims to draw a more nuanced picture of the refugee students’ situations and to understand how the students receive and contest the humanitarian response toward their higher education needs (or lack thereof).