About us

Education Beyond Borders (EBB) creates educational pathways for displaced learners and at-risk academics through scholarships, fellowships and partnership-led programmes.

Responding to global displacement

Displacement continues to interrupt education for millions of people worldwide. Universities have a role to play in responding, not only through individual scholarships but through sustained and structured approaches. 

Education Beyond Borders (EBB) is one way that the University of Edinburgh responds to global displacement. EBB reflects the University’s commitment to this longer-term work by building the partnerships, pathways and support needed to make access meaningful in practice.

What we do

EBB brings together different routes, partnerships and support into and through higher education – because the barriers displaced scholars face aren’t the same, and the response shouldn’t be either. Our activity includes:

  • undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships
  • fellowships for academics at risk
  • online learning options for those who cannot travel
  • transition support to help students succeed once they arrive
  • partnership-based programmes that extend access beyond the University

Explore our scholarships and fellowships

Many displaced students arrive carrying significant disruption - to their studies, finances and sometimes their sense of what is possible. EBB provides practical and pastoral support before arrival and throughout their research. This includes financial help for travel and equipment, peer networks, academic guidance and space to raise problems before they become crises.

See how we support our scholars


We cannot do this work alone and we don't try to, which is why we work with scholarship bodies, NGOs, universities and international agencies. Together, we're able to reach learners who would otherwise remain outside the system and design programmes that reflect realities on the ground rather than institutional assumptions about what displaced people need.

Explore our partnerships


Our place within the University

EBB plays a wider role within the University, bringing together learning from across different routes – including research, student experience and partnerships – to shape how we approach access and support for those impacted by global displacement.

This means that we do not just deliver activity, but we help inform the University's response to global displacement more broadly, aligning to the University's wider commitments to:

  • widening participation
  • equality, diversity and inclusion
  • Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • Learning and Teaching and Strategic Enrolment priorities

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