Higher education opportunities and challenges for youth with forced migratory backgrounds in the Nordic countries: a qualitative systematic review

Abstract Education is a basic human right for everyone. However, only 7% of young refugees have access to higher education compared with 42% non-refugees. This article explores the following research questions: i). What are the higher education opportunities and challenges for young refugees in the Nordic countries? ii). How do Nordic egalitarianism and structural violence respectively enable or disenable young refugees’ higher education aspirations in the Nordic countries? I employed Nordic egalitarianism and structural violence as analytical frameworks and qualitative evidence synthesis as a methodology. The findings indicate that, on the one hand, higher education institutions (HEIs) and introductory programmes (IPs) improve access to higher education for forcibly displaced youth in the Nordic countries. On the other hand, structural barriers continue to undermine young refugees’ higher education ambitions, contradicting the principles of Nordic egalitarianism. To address these challenges, I recommend that HEIs and IPs concretize their inclusive initiatives to make higher education emancipatory for young refugees in the Nordic countries.