Refugee Care

Overview

Through the Refugee Care course offered by the University of Essex , you gain skills in challenging negative and limiting stereotypes of refugees as traumatised, passive recipients of help. You also gain new insight into effective humanitarian work with refugees and have a special opportunity to visit an Asylum Tribunal and learn from judges about how the UK asylum system operates. This programme is closely associated with Centre for Trauma Asylum and Refugees.

Using an innovative twin-site programme, our course staff are made up from the multidisciplinary practitioner expertise of the department and the therapeutic provision of the Tavistock and Portman Clinic. You will also have guest speakers who are activists, academics and world experts in the field. You will learn our unique, innovative and proven approach enabling you to work directly with refugees, combining theory and practice. We offer valuable opportunities to gain first-hand experience in this field through supportive work placements in London, Colchester and beyond.

Students often come with a wealth of voluntary and professional experience in fields such as education, psychology, therapy, medicine, nursing, social work, human rights, law, politics, philosophy, art, literature and media studies. We also welcome people coming to the field of Refugee Care anew, with an interest in working directly with refugees, asylum seekers or other involuntarily dislocated groups of people, or conducting conceptual or empirical research in this area. Students may successfully combine study on our course with part-time work with charity sector organisations.

Your future

The field of refugee work is not only topical but is expanding and developing rapidly, creating new employment initiatives and opportunities. This course is unique in equipping students to work directly in this field.

Accordingly, our graduates make an impact by applying the innovative approach that our course offers in a variety of contexts and disciplines. Many of our graduates go on to play a leading role in many spheres e.g. education, social and community work, human rights, emergency and humanitarian aid, national, international and non-governmental organisations.