Meet Emilie at the University of Sussex
This month we’re meeting Emilie de la Nougerède, Widening Participation Project Lead (post 16) at University of Sussex.
Tell us about your role
My focus is on post 16 learners and my role is to work with schools and colleges, predominately to support them in decision making and informed choices. I deliver finance and personal statements workshops and support on campus events such as ‘find your future’, a day for Year 12s with everything you need to find out about university in one place. I am part of our information and guidance work, provide online 1:1 personal statement support and am part of our tutoring programme and GCSE resit programme at Brighton MET.
Alongside this I am part of the team developing and delivering our work with refugee and asylum seeker learners. We support learners who are enrolled on our pre-sessional English course to support their application to the university, and I run the refugee and asylum seeker day in collaboration with the University of Brighton.
Tell us about the University of Sanctuary visit day
This is a wonderful one-day event run in conjunction with the University of Brighton to support refugee and asylum seeker students who are considering their Higher Education options. We run sessions on how to apply to university, finance and scholarship information and opportunities to meet with undergraduate refugee and asylum seeker students. The day is completely free with travel and lunch included.
To be eligible to attend learners need to be studying a Level 3 qualification or equivalent.
The event will be held on Monday March 23rd 2026. The event is incredibly popular and places are limited. Last year we were fully booked so please make sure to book on! Booking will open soon and can be done here.
Why is this event so important for the University of Sussex?
We are a University of Sanctuary which means we are part of a national network of universities working to make Higher Education institutions places of safety, solidarity and empowerment for people seeking sanctuary. The network has been developed through a partnership between City of Sanctuary, Article 26, Student Action for Refugees and others with the aim to develop a culture and a practice of welcome within institutions, the wider community, and across the Higher Education sector in the UK.
We offer three sanctuary scholarships a year for undergraduate and masters study to people who are asylum seekers or who have a form of temporary leave; this includes a full fee waiver, a set amount for living costs, membership to SussexSport and continuation of housing while studying. You can find out more about these scholarships, our work as a University of Sanctuary and links to other resources here. You can find out more about how the university supports forced migrants, asylum and at-risk learners here.
What resources are available for schools and colleges to support their refugee and asylum seeker learners?
Staff and learners can contact us at inspires@sussex.ac.uk to ask questions and find out more about progression to university. You can send us any enquiries and we will support with getting the answers.
We created a video with Refugee Education UK for refugee and asylum seekers looking to apply to university which can be viewed.
We have also put together an information booklet full of helpful information and resources for learners applying to university which you can download here.
As part of the SLN Community Fund project, the University of Sussex led on a piece of research to improve education for refugee background students. You can find out more about the research and read the report here.