Solution Overview

GEM’s solution enables refugee graduates and their communities to be included in leadership-level positions and decision-making through access to 21st century skills, recognized qualifications, and economic empowerment. SNHU’s competency-based bachelor’s degree requires students to master key skills through successfully completing a series of rigorous and workplace-relevant projects. The degree is an ideal solution for complex refugee learning environments because it untethers the credit hour from seat time. Projects are accessed and completed on students’ timelines rather than a university mandated schedule. This means that students in unstable political and technology environments do not face gaps in learning that they would in more traditional coursework. Furthermore, GEM is committed to documenting learning and evidence from our model in order to encourage other academic institutions to enter the field and close the refugee higher education access gap alongside SNHU/GEM. GEM measures success primarily through graduation and employment rates, with targets of 85% and 75% respectively. Progress also hinges on the number of sites and students served, and ensuring at least five other universities join the field through GEM’s leadership and guidance. By 2030, GEM will transform the individual lives of more than 40,000 refugee learners in 20 countries. GEM will also act as a catalyst to worldwide university involvement in this current crisis. Thus GEM will have a deep impact on student lives in selected geographies while also ensuring additional universities enter the field, thereby broadening our impact and collectively matching refugee access to higher education to the worldwide rate of 34%.