Education Intern

Position description

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is offering a full-time internship with the Education Section of the Sustainable Response Service under the Division of Resilience and Solutions at UNHCR Copenhagen.

Established in December 1950, UNHCR is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for asylum seekers, refugees, returnees, internally displaced communities and stateless people. Every year, millions of men, women and children are forced to flee their homes to escape conflict and persecution. UNHCR currently operates in over 130 countries, using its long expertise to protect and care for millions.

Organizational context

UNHCR and partners are committed to achieving enrolment of 15 percent of young refugee women and men in higher education by the year 2030 – the 15by30 target (UNHCR, 2020). Based on current population data, achieving 15 per cent enrolment in 2030 will mean that approximately half a million young refugee women and men will be participating in an enriching academic life. Expanding access to 15 per cent over the next ten years will require the coordinated, committed and sustained engagement of a range of partners and students alike.

UNHCR is committed to empowering and engaging with refugee youth and students to strengthen the relevance of UNHCR’s work and its impact for refugee communities. Refugees should be involved in the decision-making processes that affect their lives—specifically including, for the purposes of this project and position, as relates to education, self-reliance, skills development and solutions. Access to information and targeted guidance services are essential to ensuring that more refugee youth are able to avail themselves of education, employment, self-reliance and solutions.

The tertiary education team at UNHCR headquarters, within the Division of Resilience and Solutions, welcomes an intern to the team, which has a strong track record of hosting interns that quickly assume responsibility for meaningful and challenging areas of work ranging from drafting internal and external guidance documents, inputting into content development and presentations, planning and managing events, supporting data collection, report drafting, developing infographics and more.

The position

Responsibilities are assigned taking into account the skills and interests of the individual fellow, desired areas of learning and growth, and the overall needs of the team. Every effort is made to provide fellows with opportunities to lead on projects and to develop concrete deliverables. Fellows are not expected to engage only in routine support work but also to gain experience leading on projects and presenting work products.

The incumbent has been integral to several high priority projects including supporting direct engagement with refugee student leaders, the Global Refugee Forum, and the Global Refugee Higher Education Newsletter, development of public facing briefing notes and guidance documents, as well as supporting multiple webinars, drafting talking points, analysing GRF pledges and partner data. These tasks are expected to be continued through the period of extension.

Duties and responsibilities

• Analyse pledges made to the Global Refugee Forum (GRF), support pledging webinars and the work of the 15by30 Multistakeholder Pledge leadership group, and, critically, the Global Tertiary Education Task Team.
• Working directly with refugee youth leaders, support the process of integrating several refugee student leadership initiatives (Tertiary Refugee Student Network, Peer to Peer Solutions Advisors, DAFI clubs) and to expand their reach and impact through the DAFI programme structure, Prospects Partnership and Mastercard Foundation partnership.
• Assist with planning and preparation for student and higher education representation in the GRF Progress Review, Geneva December 2025.
• Support development of the global refugee higher education newsletter, including contacting partners for content, refining language and visual content, distribution.
• Draft reports, talking points, provide inputs to Education Section, UNHCR and global reports, review and analyse reports, provide summaries and updates, ensure dissemination of relevant information within the tertiary team and beyond.

Qualifications

Minimum qualifications required

In order to be considered for an internship, candidates must meet the following eligibility criteria:
• Be either a recent graduate (having completed their studies within two years of applying) or a current student in a graduate/undergraduate school programme from a university or higher education facility accredited by IAU/UNESCO ; and
• Have completed at least two years of undergraduate studies in a field relevant or of interest to the work of UNHCR .
• not have exhausted the maximum cumulative internship period with UNHCR, including any prior internships (8 months for full-time and 12 months for part-time)

NOTE: An individual who bears the relationship of parent, child or sibling or step-parent, step-child or step-sibling to a current UNHCR staff member or affiliate is not eligible for an internship.

Desirable qualifications and skills

• Degree in law, social sciences, political science, education, development studies may be applicable, but any relevant field can be accepted depending on candidate’s area if interest.
  • Excellent communication and presentation skills in English.
  • Experience in refugee higher education programming, student leadership development, cultivating advocacy and mobilization initiatives or similar.
  • Knowledge of Microsoft packages, including Teams, Outlook, Powerpoint, Excel. Knowledge of PowerBI, Canva and related applications is strongly appreciated.
  • Ability to plan, organise and coordinate support for global events integrating multiple partners and high-level participation.
  • Experience working with refugee advocacy, education policy, research methodologies, international development are considered relevant and potential assets to the Application.
  • Applicants must be committed to rights-based approaches to international development and humanitarian action, and to refugee protection.
  • Applicant must be able to work in rapidly evolving conditions, often against deadline, while maintaining a collegial approach and respect for a diverse team and workplace.

Conditions

It is a full-time role with working hours starting from 8.30 am to 5.00 pm, Monday to Friday (40 hours per week). The successful candidate will be assigned to support the team in Copenhagen.

Allowance: Interns who do not receive financial support from an outside party will receive an allowance to partially help to cover the cost of food, local transportation and living expenses.

Travel: Unless provided or paid by external sponsoring entities, UNHCR reimburse interns engaged from a location outside of the country of the duty station for the ticket costs of their outward and return travel to/from the duty station by the most economical route available on economy class, irrespective of the duration of the journey. Reimbursement shall be limited to the authorized outward and return travel between the intern’s country of residence and the intern’s duty station, or actual route of travel, whichever is lower.

Before travel is undertaken, the selected intern must obtain authorization in writing from the hiring office. Such authorization must include the approved cost of the ticket.

Internships normally last two to six months with the possibility of extension up to eight months for full-time internships and twelve months for part-time internships.

Obligations

Acquiring and renewing current visas, residence permits including all associated costs, obtaining medical certification and compliance with taxation requirements (if applicable), are the responsibility of the intern.

The selected candidate will need to provide UNHCR with a proof of health insurance coverage applicable to the assigned internship location and a certificate of good health from a qualified medical practitioner certifying their fitness for work and travel. In the event the selected candidate is not able to produce the required certificates, they will not be admitted to the Internship Programme.
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If you are a person with a disability and you expect you may face challenges during the recruitment process, you can indicate it in your application form.

There are options to select any health conditions you may have and outline any necessary adjustments related to disabilities during the recruitment phases. Providing this information is optional. It will be treated as strictly confidential and used only for the purpose of finding out how to better assist you during the recruitment process.

Adjustments for candidates with disabilities will be provided as best as possible and as needed upon request.

All candidates will be assessed based on meeting the requirements for each vacancy in relation to experience, skills, and education.

The UNHCR workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures, languages and opinions. UNHCR seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. Applications are encouraged from all qualified candidates without distinction on grounds of race, colour, sex, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

UNHCR does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process (application, interview, meeting, travelling, processing or training.

We welcome applications from candidates with a refugee or stateless background.

Application instructions

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