Crafting agency in a host community: Accessing and participating in the English higher education sector by Ukrainian refugees

Abstract Following Russia's launch of a full‐scale war against Ukraine in 2022, scholarship has not yet addressed how Ukrainian refugees in England have been navigating the challenges of developing their agency in pursuing opportunities to participate in the higher education (HE) sector. To address this gap, this paper thematically analyses 11 oral history interviews with Ukrainian refugees. The findings demonstrate that accessing and participating in the HE sector in a host community is a significantly complicated process not just for the (prospective) student population of Ukrainian refugees, as other studies about refugees highlight, but for academics too, despite special support measures. Unlike previous studies that emphasise the passive position of refugees, stripped of their agency, our findings highlight the active nature of Ukrainian refugees' limited agency. Pursuing participation in the HE sector becomes an active agency‐seeking process, prompting refugees to craft ways to pull all available resources and connections far beyond the HE sector in the effort to overcome the constraints of their marginalised position with regard to access and effective participation in the HE sector. These findings are significant not only for addressing existing gaps in the literature on refugee agency and refugees in HE in general, as well as Ukrainian refugees in particular, but also for informing policymaking at the national and institutional levels in England and beyond. These findings highlight the effectiveness of current support measures for Ukrainian refugees in England and point to specific challenges related to the HE environment which require further policy interventions: recognition of prior qualifications, building social networks, utilising technology, enhanced English language support and financial assistance.