Latitudes: They fled the Taliban. Here’s what happened next.

Afghan women have found a new home on a U.S. campus. Plus, a new report on how community colleges can support immigrant and refugee students. ADVERTISEMENT [Latitudes Logo]( You can also [read this newsletter on the web](. Or, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, [unsubscribe](. “This has injected a higher level of passion” It was impossible to miss the excitement and pride in Saieda’s voice. I had called the University of Delaware student for a final conversation before The Chronicle published an [article]( about her and a fellow displaced Afghan student, Zahra. (The Chronicle is not using the women’s full names for their safety.) I have been following the students for two years, ever since they and 146 of their classmates were [airlifted out of Kabul]( in the wake of the Taliban invasion. Their escape could sometimes seem ripped from the pages of a movie script — the group tried for days to make it to the safety of the city’s main airport, their bus caravan coming under fire — but these days, they’re mostly living the lives of typical college students: Playing volleyball. Watching Netflix. (A recent favorite: Anne With An E, the latest adaptation of the Anne of Green Gables novels. “I like her imagination,” Zahra said.) Trying to decide on a major. This summer, Saieda got her wisdom teeth removed. And last month, she was picked to work as a welcome ambassador, helping new University of Delaware students adjust to the Newark campus. That was what Saieda was telling me about in our last call, how she had drawn on her own experience as a newcomer to help others feel more at home. “It was amazing,” she said. There’s much more left in Saieda and Zahra’s stories, of course, but I’m grateful to them for trusting me to write about this chapter. [You can click here to read the full article]( — nonsubscribers who register for a [free Chronicle account]( can read two articles each month. Your readership helps support our journalism. American colleges rallied to take in all of the Afghan students in that group, but the United States was never meant to be their destination. They were supposed to head to the [Asian University for Women]( a Bangladesh university that works to provide a liberal-arts education to young women from across the region, regardless of background. I recently checked in with Kamal Ahmad, a Harvard-trained lawyer who is the university’s founder. The airlifted students are likewise just part of the story of AUW’s support of Afghan women, Ahmad told me. Afghan students have long had a significant presence at the decade-old university, and, at the time of the Taliban takeover of the Afghan government, in August 2021, they were the second-largest group among the student body. Educating women who otherwise would have little opportunity to earn a college degree has always been central to AUW’s mission. With the Taliban in control, education for Afghan girls and women beyond the sixth grade was ended, giving new urgency to that goal. “This has injected a higher level of passion in us,” Ahmad said. While the initial group was able to leave Afghanistan on a military transport before American and other western forces withdrew from the country, that route out is no longer feasible. Instead, Ahmad and his colleagues went directly to Taliban authorities, meeting with top officials in the foreign-affairs and higher-education ministries. To try to help prospective students secretly leave the country could have put their families at risk, Ahmad said. The case AUW made was straightforward: Some in the Taliban government have said they would support the education of women if classrooms were gender segregated. AUW, its administrators argued, could help prepare critically needed female teachers — and the Taliban agreed. Since January 2022, some 500 Afghan women have come to AUW, and the university hopes to reach 600 by the end of this year. It has not always been easy. The cost of obtaining passports and other travel documents has soared. AUW has had to open a second campus to accommodate the new students. The newcomers have also strained the university’s instructional capacity. AUW has recruited recent graduates from top American and British institutions, including Harvard, Oxford, and Wellesley, to teach for a year in a pre-college program that helps students improve their English skills while getting used to college-level work. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is supporting nine postdoctoral fellows to fill out the faculty ranks. And the students who have made it to Bangladesh are already working to keep the educational pipeline open, teaching online courses to female high-school students back home in Afghanistan who couldn’t otherwise enter a classroom. NEWSLETTER [Sign Up for the Teaching Newsletter]( Find insights to improve teaching and learning across your campus. Delivered on Thursdays. To read this newsletter as soon as it sends, [sign up]( to receive it in your email inbox. More resources on Afghan and other displaced students AUW and its supporters aren’t alone in trying to ensure educational opportunities for Afghan women and others whose schooling has been disrupted. For example, the [University of the People]( an American-accredited online institution, has provided some 2,500 scholarships to help Afghan women continue their studies virtually. The university’s president, Shai Reshef, has [challenged]( other college leaders to enroll more displaced students, saying that if every institution could enroll just 15, it would make a major dent in the refugee-education crisis. In [Kentucky]( a first-of-its-kind statewide scholarship program is helping refugee and displaced students attend college. Experts called it a “landmark” effort. And the U.S. Department of State recently announced a new program that will allow American colleges to privately sponsor refugee students. The program, the [Welcome Corps on Campus]( will enable qualified students to resettle in the United States, enroll at a participating institution, and obtain legal permanent residency, with the opportunity to apply for U.S. citizenship. FROM THE CHRONICLE STORE [College as a Public Good - The Chronicle Store]( [College as a Public Good]( Many leaders and industry observers say it has been decades since the heat on presidents has been this intense. [Order your copy today]( to explore what today’s presidents are up against, how things are changing, and how to navigate new challenges. How community colleges can support immigrant and refugee students Nearly one in three community-college students is from an immigrant background, according to a [new report]( from Upwardly Global, a national nonprofit organization that works to help immigrants and refugees earn academic credentials. While students of immigrant origin are the fastest-growing student population in American higher education, hurdles exist to effectively supporting them, the report notes. Data on such students is insufficient, and community-college officials often lack the resources and expertise to serve them. A survey conducted this summer by Upwardly Global and the National Council for Workforce Education, with support from the Lumina Foundation, found that about 80 percent of respondents said their community college must improve its capacity to meet the specific needs of immigrant and refugee students. Thirty percent reported that their institution had no programs to support recredentialing and career re-entry for such students. The report proposes best practices for supporting immigrant and refugee students, including improving professional development for faculty and staff members and working with other stakeholders such as employers, work-force agencies, and community-based organizations. Community colleges can also invest in career services tailored to such students and expand education and training programs, such as short-term credentials, that help them get into the work force. Around the globe Wages for workers in high-tech fields grew in recent years even as the number of international students taking part in an [extended post-graduate work program]( for science and technology graduates also increased. The Niskanen Center, a think tank that favors more open immigration policy, cited the figures in arguing that Optional Practical Training doesn’t hurt American workers. A California congressman is calling on the U.S. House to take up a bill he proposed that would approve special immigrant visas for former [Fulbright scholars from Afghanistan](. Mexican police and military officials colluded with a drug cartel to [kidnap and cover up]( the mass killing of 43 college students they had mistaken for a rival gang, according to text messages and investigative files obtained by The New York Times. In the wake of a [U.S. Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action]( lawmakers in Brazil have extended the country’s [quota system]( which gives college-admissions preferences to students from racial-minority, low-income, and other disadvantaged backgrounds. Canada could enroll as many as 900,000 [international students]( this year, which is close to the number of student-visa holders in the United States. Plans to allow foreign colleges to set up branch campuses in India could be [delayed]( by a dispute between a higher-education regulator and a national university association over which one has the authority to evaluate foreign degrees. Student unions in Iran are pushing back against efforts to increase [gender segregation]( in college classrooms. Saudi Arabia will require all secondary students to take [Chinese-language classes](. More than 100 universities and research institutes have been burned or vandalized in fighting in [Sudan](. Egypt’s government is offering scholarships to international students and giving them residency rights as part of an effort to promote itself as a [destination for overseas study](. Ukrainian students are calling for the end of a wartime policy that [prohibits]( college-age men from leaving the country to study internationally. A private college affiliated with Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s nationalist prime minister, is planning to open an [outpost in London](. China’s National People’s Congress is considering legislation that would allow colleges to revoke the degrees of students and scholars who use [artificial intelligence]( or other “illegal means” to write dissertations or essays. A newly published textbook focuses on the political ideology of [Xi Jinping]( China’s leader. China is using intermediaries to recruit overseas scientists as it has become more difficult for government or higher-education representatives to do recruitment for [foreign-talent programs](. And finally … Join The Chronicle on Thursday, September 14, at noon ET, for an online discussion, [Politics in the Classroom: Who Decides]( My colleague Emma Pettit will talk with a panel of experts about why state lawmakers want more say over what can and cannot be broached in public-college classrooms and how this trend affects teaching, academic governance, and campus climate. Bring your questions to this interactive conversation, which is open for anyone with a free Chronicle account. Thanks for reading. I always welcome your feedback and ideas for future reporting, so drop me a line at karin.fischer@chronicle.com. You can also connect with me on [X]( or [LinkedIn](. If you like this newsletter, please share it with colleagues and friends. 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