UNHCR releases 2025 Refugee Education Report with final word by Dr Charles CHEN Yidan

BANGKOK, 10 September 2025: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has released its 2025 Refugee Education Report, highlighting the urgent need to expand access to quality education for millions of refugee and displaced children and youth worldwide.

This year’s report features a powerful final word by Dr. Charles CHEN Yidan, philanthropist and founder of the Yidan Prize, the world’s highest education accolade which celebrates changemakers in education research and development.

In his closing remarks, Dr. Chen reflects on his family’s journey and underscores the transformative power of education - not only for refugees but for society as a whole.

“Education must be a collective endeavour,” Dr. Chen writes. “We must recognise how much we all stand to gain if children acquire the skills and knowledge to tackle the huge challenges of our time - from poverty and inequality to conflict and climate change - challenges, incidentally, that refugees experience directly.”

The Refugee Education Report calls for greater investments and stronger partnerships to address the persistent barriers refugees face in accessing education, particularly at the secondary and tertiary levels where enrolment remains critically low. Across Asia, millions of refugee children remain excluded from formal education systems, limiting their ability to rebuild their lives and contribute to their communities.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi reinforced the message in his foreword:

“Ensuring that refugees can learn is vital to their futures, and to ours.”

Key findings from the report include:

• 67% of refugee children are enrolled in primary education - well below global averages.

• At the secondary level, enrolment drops to 37%, highlighting major access gaps.

• Only 9% of refugee youth are enrolled in tertiary education, underscoring systemic barriers including financial constraints, legal status, and lack of recognition of prior learning.

• Despite these challenges, there are success stories of innovative partnerships expanding opportunities for displaced youth across Asia and beyond.

The 2025 Refugee Education Report demonstrates that unlocking the potential of refugees requires shared responsibility - between governments, the private sector, educational institutions, and local communities.

Across the Asia-Pacific region, generous private sector donors like Transsion and ANTA Group are stepping up to support refugee education, expanding learning opportunities for displaced children and youth. Their contributions are helping to bridge critical gaps in access and quality. UNHCR calls on more private sector actors across the region to join this collective effort, recognizing that investing in refugee education is an investment in a more inclusive, resilient future for all.