The Office of the Vice Provost, Global Engagement congratulates and thanks the local WUSC Committee, the QUIC team, and all the ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ community members that have been supporting students in collaboration with WUSC.
Queen’s University has demonstrated a long-standing support for people displaced by conflict, persecution, and political instability. Over the last 34 years, Queen’s has welcomed and supported 36 forcibly displaced students through their partnership with the World University Services of Canada (WUSC).
In September 2021, in addition to the SRP regular stream candidates, Queen’s responded to the Afghan crisis with a commitment to welcome five students from Afghanistan. As part of the resettlement pledge to these five students Queen’s has been providing comprehensive English language education in 2022-23 with anticipation the students will be fully engaged in their academic programs of study in 2023-24. Queen’s declaration to the students is to fund all of their tuition and fee expenses and to provide a robust financial package for living expenses.
In addition to the monetary provision, there is a strong acknowledgement among the members of the Queen’s-WUSC Local Committee of the wide-ranging support the sponsored students require as they adjust and integrate to university life, the local Kingston community and thriving in their adopted country of Canada. The student leaders have reconstituted the local group to foster an engaged core of peers to ensure that each of the sponsored students (regular stream and Afghan cohort) are partnered with peer mentors to help the sponsored students adjust to the academic environment and manage the countless new experiences and challenges they encounter.
As the Queen’s team supporting the sponsored students, they have the honour of witnessing their perseverance through uncertainty and challenges; to appreciate their curiosity and adaptability, to marvel at their determination to succeed and to meet the expectations they have for themselves; and to observe their growth in confidence as they proceed through their degrees and begin journeys in their desired careers.