Dear IIENetwork Members, 

The crisis in Syria has created an academic emergency, with the break-down of higher education within the country and major obstacles facing Syrians who are studying or teaching outside of Syria. This week’s violent attacks on the University of Aleppo have underscored the need for urgent action to save the students and scholars who will be needed to rebuild their country. (See joint statement issued today condemning the attacks.)

In response to the crisis, the Institute of International Education (IIE), in partnership with the Syrian organization Jusoor and the Illinois Institute of Technology, formed a consortium of higher education institutions and other organizations who have committed to provide scholarships, tuition waivers and other types of emergency support for Syrian students and scholars. We are grateful to the organizations around the world that have come together to support students in Syria at this critical time. 

We are pleased to announce that the Syria Scholarships portal is now live at www.iie.org/syriascholarships, and students from Syria can begin searching scholarship opportunities immediately. 

We invite you to take action now:

• Join the IIE Syria Consortium for Higher Education in Crisis by making a Commitment to Action, indicating your willingness to offer full or partial scholarships for students or host threatened scholars. We will add member names and new scholarship listings to the Syria Scholarship portal as they are received. 

• Donate Now to assist more Syrian students and to top up some of the partial scholarships being offered.  When donating online, please indicate that your support is intended for the Syria initiative. 

The new Syria Scholarships portal includes listings of full and partial scholarships offered by more than 40 universities around the world for Syrian students, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. New scholarship opportunities will be added as universities continue to join the consortium. 

 

Students from Syria can visit the Syria Scholarships portal to search for scholarship opportunities that meet their needs. After students fill out a simple Student Information Form, they will be given a password to access the database of scholarships, which will include contact information and application instructions for each scholarship and university. Each university will run their own admissions process and will have a separate timeline.  Some opportunities are available for spring 2013 and others may be available on a rolling basis or for study beginning in fall 2013.  Each university will select students based on their own selection criteria (which may include TOEFL, IELTS, SAT and other scores). All applicants will be subject to each university's admissions process. No third party will hinder or influence the integrity of this process. 

The portal also connects Syrian scholars who need assistance with IIE’s Scholar Rescue Fund and universities offering to host scholars. Separate sections of the portal include links to additional resources and online courses that are available for Syrians who may not be able to apply to and enroll at a university in another country at this time.

 

IIE member institutions may access the password-protected scholarships page using the following information:  

Username: syriascholarships

Password: syri@5cholarships