Columbia GSAPP is part of the newly launched, university-wide Scholarship for Displaced Students. The initiative is an effort to provide displaced students with the opportunity to pursue higher education at Columbia University. The Scholarship aims to shift the global dialogue surrounding displaced persons, from one that views them as a burden to one that recognizes them as vital contributors to global innovation and prosperity.

More than 70.8 million people around the world have been forced from their homes by violence, persecution and other human rights violations. Almost 26 million of these individuals are classified as refugees by the United Nations. Only 3 percent of them will ever enroll in a college or university.

The Columbia University Scholarship for Displaced Students is being launched in response to this crisis, an unprecedented initiative in Columbia’s history. Administered by the Columbia Global Centers, it will provide support for up to 30 students annually to receive tuition, housing and living assistance while pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees across all 18 Columbia schools and affiliate institutions. The scholarship program is for foreign nationals with refugee status or those who have received US asylum or submitted a US asylum application, or are in the US under Temporary Protection Status.

“We are very proud of the Columbia Scholarship for Displaced Students,” said University President Lee C. Bollinger. “The program sends a powerful message about the role that colleges and universities should be playing to help young people whose educations have been disrupted because they have been forced to flee violence and persecution in their home countries.”