The Rector Mikuláš Bek asked the members of the academic community of Masaryk University to look for ways in which they could help the government to resolve the immigration crisis, whether with their expertise or otherwise. At the same time, the MU administration started to map activities focused on refugees that are already going on at the university.
“There are more than just a few. For example, the university has long been involved in the refugee camp in Zastávka u Brna. Today we have established a working group whose main task for the coming weeks will be to prepare a portfolio of various types of help that we could offer to the government or to non-profit organizations working with refugees. I already received several positive responses and suggestions from members of the academic community that we will consider and I would welcome further suggestions,” said the Rector.
He added that universities across the whole Europe offer free education to refugees, but he does not think this is the most important issue. Bek explained the position of the university in the following way: “At the moment, it is necessary to help the refugees with the very basic things – offer them legal counseling, help them communicate with the authorities, they need interpreters, there are also medical issues to deal with. At the moment, we do not know how many refugees will want to stay in the Czech Republic, so it seems to be too early to talk about their studies. However, our university will also be open to enabling the ones who will want to and be able to stay to fully integrate into the society including the education system.”
International migration and its social and cultural aspects has long been the subject of study at the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Social Studies, while legal counseling for refugees has been studied at the Faculty of Law for some time now. The Department of Art at the Faculty of Education has extensive experience with creative workshops for refugees. The Department of Social Education at the same faculty has long been involved in education of socially disadvantaged groups. The university departments that teach Czech for foreigners might help the migrants with overcoming language barriers.
“The refugee issue will certainly not disappear quickly, so what we are trying to achieve is not an intellectual debate, but rather choosing reasonable and sustainable ways to help. It is part of the social responsibility of the university and one of its basic roles,” concluded Bek.