What do we know about how women with forced migration experiences access tertiary education in resettlement contexts? A scoping study

ABSTRACT There has been a growth of scholarly interest in the experiences of people with refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds as they seek to access tertiary education in resettlement. While gender is frequently identified as a key factor that impacts equitable participation in tertiary studies, the educational challenges for women with forced migration experiences (WFME) are often incidentally identified, rather than a targeted focus of inquiry. Here, we map the scholarly literature that explicitly focuses on the tertiary educational experiences of WFME, using a scoping study methodology (Arksey and O’Malley 2005) to explore current understandings and suggest future research directions. In analysing WFME-focused literature spanning the last ten years, we consider what is known about the barriers and facilitators to engagement, and the ways in which gendered experiences intersect with issues of language, culture, and socioeconomic and visa status to create particular constellations of gendered disadvantage that are specific to WFME.