World Refugee Day 2025
Education empowers people to build a life aligned with their values and aspirations. Yet more people are living in conditions that severely limit their access to it—and hope for a future.
IIE recognizes the limitless potential of displaced people and supports viable pathways to continue their education and contribute to a brighter future.
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Crises such as armed conflict, extreme weather, and systemic corruption and repression have forced more than 121 million people* from their homes to date. Access to higher education reverberates through communities and nations, ultimately fostering a more secure and equitable future for everyone. That is why, through the generous support of our donors, IIE has issued more than 2,300 scholarships, fellowships, and grants to displaced students, scholars, and artists through the Odyssey Scholarship, the Scholar Rescue Fund, the Artist Protection Fund, and other groundbreaking initiatives.
IIE has been instrumental to my success both academically and professionally.”
Myo Myo Khine
IIE Odyssey Scholar from Myanmar
By the Numbers
Through the generous support of donors, IIE has issued more than 2,300 scholarships, fellowships, and grants to displaced students, scholars, and artists from regions around the world through our groundbreaking initiatives, including the Odyssey Scholarship, the Artist Protection Fund, and the Scholar Rescue Fund.
*according to the UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency
IIE deploys global, holistic resources for students, scholars, and artists where and when it’s needed most. Philanthropic support at all levels helps to deploy emergency grants, secure long-term safe work placements, and provide life-changing scholarships. Learn more about IIE’s Crisis Response initiatives below.
Artist protection fund
Providing fellowship grants to threatened artists from any field of practice to continue their work in safety and plan for their futures.
Odyssey scholarship
Covering tuition, housing, and living expenses for student refugees pursuing bachelor’s or master’s degrees.
Scholar Rescue Fund
Arranging and funding fellowships for threatened and displaced scholars at higher education institutions.
Emergency student fund
Grants for international college students in the U.S. when crises threaten their education.
Protecting Educational Access Among Afghan Women
Afghan university-age students, scholars, and artists face threats to their work, their ability to continue their education, and their lives. In the three years since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, IIE and its global network partners have expanded our work to ensure the safety and welfare of students, scholars, and artists threatened by the political shift. To date, IIE’s Scholar Rescue Fund has awarded 130 fellowships to 68 Afghan scholars.
I decided I had to get out of the country. It wasn’t an easy decision, but I had to.”
Sharifa “Elja” Sharifi, 2023 IIE Artist Protection Fund Fellow from Afghanistan
In 2021, Sharifa “Elja” Sharifi was working at the Afghan National Gallery in Herāt when the Taliban seized control of the government in Afghanistan.
As a female visual artist and an outspoken advocate for women’s rights, Elja was left with no choice but to flee her home country.
Elja found refuge at Cornell University through the IIE Artist Protection Fund, the only global program that provides artists across métier with fellowship funding, placement, mentoring, and inclusion in a comprehensive network of artistic and social support.
She recalls her decision: “I couldn’t believe that night when, among the noise of bombs, shootings, and rockets, our beautiful Herāt fell. Although I was still alive, I felt like the walking dead. I decided I had to get out of the country. It wasn’t an easy decision, but I had to.”
Now a Ph.D. candidate in art history, Elja has curated two exhibitions at the Johnson Museum in Ithaca: The Poetic World of Persian Art (2023), based on her research into the museum’s Persian art collection, and Hakim Karimzada: Herat and Me (2024), highlighting the work of an Afghan master calligrapher from Herat who now lives in the U.S.
IIE is a proud implementing partner of the Qatar Scholarship for Afghans Project (QSAP), supported through a collaboration with the Education Above All Foundation (EAA), Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD), the Institute of International Education (IIE), and the Afghan Future Fund – a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. QSAP has placed more than 300 scholarship recipients at more than 60 colleges and universities in the United States, Albania, Canada, Germany, Qatar, and the United Kingdom, with 62% awarded to women. Learn more about IIE’s Afghanistan Crisis Response.
Investing in the Future Leaders of Ukraine
University buildings, professors, college and graduate students, and other civilians attached to education are commonly targeted as authoritarian policies seek to undermine access to knowledge. From the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, IIE stepped in to provide immediate aid to Ukrainian students, scholars, and artists whose livelihoods were abruptly upended, and since then, we have supported more than 600 scholars, students, and artists through our longer-term Ukraine Crisis Response initiatives.
The experience and knowledge I gained during my IIE-SRF fellowship and the long-term ties I built with my foreign colleagues will improve Ukrainian education.”
Olha Matviienko, Scholar Rescue Fund Fellow from Ukraine
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