ACU’s Community-Embedded Education Program: 54 Changemakers Graduate on the Thai-Myanmar Border

Over the course of two days in May 2019, Australian Catholic University conferred our Diploma in Liberal Studies award to 54 young adult learners from the refugee camps and migrant communities that dot the western border of Thailand with Myanmar. Providing tertiary education in protracted refugee contexts such as this on the Thai border is not easy work, but it is incredibly important work: the demand for tertiary education opportunities in these communities is greater than ever. In 2017, ACU admitted the single largest cohort of students in the 14-year history of our program in Thailand and each of these students completed the requirements for the award of the Diploma. All but one of these students was with us for graduation (while one was in hospital due to give birth). I am very aware that the students who have spent the last 18 months studying with ACU overcame incredible challenges just to make it to our day of entrance testing in 2017, let alone to graduate. Among our new ACU graduates was a quiet, but intelligent and determined young Myanmar woman who has agreed to share an anonymised version of the story of her journey.