The Arqus ad hoc bottom-up Initiative deals with the integration of refugee students at Arqus universities and emerged from the Arqus Collaboration Project Lab at the University of Padua. In addition to the University of Padua, the initiative brings together five other Arqus partner universities, including the University of Graz.
On 7 May 2025, project manager Elisa Gamba and film director Leonardo Cinierei Lombroso presented the film “Refugee Girls”, a documentary on the lives of young women from Ukraine and Afghanistan who try to build a future for themselves in Rome and Barcelona. The film showed the challenges these women face in their daily lives as refugees in higher education. However, it also highlighted their hopes for a better life and how the support of locals gives the portrayed women the motivation to keep going despite their struggles.
Before the film, Elisa Gamba gave an outline of the overarching theme of the evening, the integration of refugees at universities, and presented current initiatives at the global as well as at the national level. After the film, Lisa Heschl, UNI-ETC, enriched the discussion with her experiences from managing the FreeAc project that deals with the impact of the Russian aggression on the university landscape in Ukraine. Together with the background information delivered by the director, the evening was a highly moving, yet encouraging experience, shedding light on the particular challenges student refugees face.
See here for the related 15by30 goal envisioned by UNHCR.