This event will provide an opportunity for colleagues from across Birkbeck and beyond to engage with the ‘decolonising the curriculum’ in higher education debate. Contributors will include Dr William Ackah, lecturer in community and voluntary sector studies at Birkbeck, Ezimma Chigbo from the Birkbeck Students’ Union and Dr Kerry Harman, from Birkbeck’s Research Centre for Social Change and Transformation in Higher Education.

Refugees can face many barriers to accessing higher education, including a lack of information, advice and individual guidance sensitive to their specific needs, inadequate provision of intensive language courses for academic purposes, and restricted access to government student finance schemes.

CR&DALL was delighted to co-host a roundtable, in conjunction with the International University of Kyrgyzstan (IUK) in Bishkek as part of the project The role of universities in developing skills for Smart Cities, funded by the Scottish Funding Council from its contribution to the University of Glasgow’s efforts to develop activities concerned with the Global Challenges Research Fund.

The United Nations has designated every 31st October as World Cities Day. The day is expected to greatly promote the international community’s interest in global urbanization, push forward cooperation among countries in meeting opportunities and addressing challenges of urbanization, and contributing to sustainable urban development around the world.