Centre for Trauma, Asylum and Refugees

CTAR Voices

Learn more about CTAR Students

Gain insight from our graduates and current students in the Masters and PhD programmes in Refugee Care.

Refugee Care students go on to make a difference in a wide range of fields including health care, therapy, social work, advocacy, policy making, education, the arts, research and academia. Our Refugee Care alumni can be found doing practical humanitarian work with a wide range of local and international organisations around the globe.  Some have set up their own projects and humanitarian organisations.

"Besides offering direct techniques and practices, the Refugee Care programme offers a new perspective to look at refugee studies. I am already using what I've learnt from the course within my psychological therapy sessions with clients and within my academic work."
Mehmet Demir  Phd rEFUGEE CARE STUDENT

Learn more about Mehmet's experience studying at Essex

I am from the Kurdish part of Turkey and I am a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist. I decided to study refugee care at the University of Essex as it offers both theoretical and practical learning about refugees. The diversity of the students and discussions in the class helps further to grasp the whole picture.

Chaw headshot of student within the centre
"What I love most about the course are the professors and classmates. In a matter of a year, we created a tight-knit community, where everyone supports one another academically and emotionally."
Chaw Thar MA Refugee care student

Why did you choose to study Refugee Care?

I decided to study Refugee Care because I wanted to understand the refugee experience from the psychosocial perspective. I enjoyed learning about the critical perspective of non-pathologizing; that is to see refugees for their humanness and not for what they have been through.

In the future, I would like to continue working with refugees in the legal field. Despite the nature of the legal field being fact-based, this course taught me to work therapeutically with refugees by bearing witness to the complexity of their story and what they have been through.

Headshot of Sian a student within the centre
"As the first person in my family to go to University, I would like to encourage those of you coming from a working class background to apply to the MA Refugee Care Course. You will find a space that is inclusive and supportive in every way possible."
Sina Lohmueller MA REFUGEE CAre student
"The course has given me the opportunity to get to know a group of exceptional change-makers from across the world. It has also enabled me to understand the work that I do at a much deeper level and given me practical tools which i hope to be able to use and share with others."
Jeannie Blizzard MA Refugee care student(part-time)