Impact case study database

Since its first academic development activities in March 2017, Parkinson and his colleagues’ collaborative action research has directly underpinned the agenda, strategy, design, and delivery of the Cara SP, for which Parkinson chairs the Academic Development Steering Group. Parkinson and colleagues’ research and engagement in this field have led to the development of multiple capacity-building, academic development, and community development practices. Below are identified some of the key benefits that have arisen as a result, and which have supported hundreds of Syrian academics to continue their academic work whilst improving their well-being and professional identity [a].

Advancing Cara SP’s Strategy, Methods, and Reach

Between 2017 and 2020, the number of international academics contributing to the Cara SP’s academic development activities has grown from eight to over 200, and the Cara SP cohort from 29 to over 400, with 160 regularly active participants [a, j]. Cara’s Executive Director, Stephen Wordsworth, praised the ‘transformative practices that have stemmed from Tom’s research’, asserting that ‘the action research that Tom has led has been instrumental in helping Cara to develop a strategy for the Syria Programme, and indeed a model for future comparable programmes [and] has played a critical part in advancing our understanding of Syrian academic needs and challenges, and in the development of the Programme’s methods and practice’ [a]. Similarly, in reference to the needs analysis undertaken by Parkinson and colleagues reported in [R3] and [R4], the Cara SP’s independent evaluator applauded the ‘innovative processes [used] to identify […] academic skills needs and participant priorities’ [i], and confirmed that ‘[the Cara SP] has achieved significant results in terms of its intended outputs and towards outcomes. The programme improved skills and networks among Syrian academics and in particular succeeded in its intention to enable academic engagement by Syrian academics in exile in Turkey’ [j].

Improving Syrian Academics’ Well-Being and Professional Identity

Through a programme of activities targeted towards the priorities identified in Parkinson, McDonald, and Quinlan’s research [R3], the Cara SP has contributed to exiled Syrian academics’ greater sense of well-being, belonging, and identity. As highlighted by Wordsworth: ‘participants attest to the transformative impact of the Syria Programme on their self-efficacy, research and teaching capacities, professional opportunities, community cohesion and overall well-being, enhancing their work as educators and researchers in both Turkish and non-regime-controlled universities in Northern Syria’ [a]. Participants have described the Cara SP as ‘a light in a very dark tunnel’: ‘I feel I am an academic again. I [now] have networks with other colleagues in the UK and even in Syria’; ‘I have felt reborn. This programme helps me to work in a team and improve my academic skills, especially in [...] scientific writing so I can prepare my work for publication’; ‘It encouraged me to work, to write something. To feel about myself as an academic. I had lost that feeling’ [b].

Building Syrian Academics’ International and Cross-Sectoral Networks

Since 2017, Parkinson and his colleagues’ research has raised the profile of Syrian academia and the Cara SP, stimulating the growth of an international network of more than 200 academics, including experts and stakeholders in the fields of displacement and (post-)conflict higher education. Wordsworth confirmed that ‘Tom’s publications and research presentations to universities and professional bodies have contributed to the in-kind support from which the Programme has benefited […] valued at well over £1 million’, adding that ‘Tom continues to apply the findings of his research to drive access to opportunity for marginalised Syrian academics’ [a]. As an example, Wordsworth highlighted that, in 2019, Parkinson ‘secured GCRF funding […] to support a four-day roundtable held in June 2019 in lstanbul [bringing] academics together with academics from Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kenya, Northern lreland, Palestine, Serbia, and South Africa. […]. ln his role as chair for the first two days, Tom contributed his research-led expertise to this unique forum for knowledge-sharing between international academics, joined by regional and international NGOs and UN agencies, an event and opportunity that was highly valued by participants informing attendees' organisational practice, helping to build solidarity and community for a growing international and cross-sectoral alliance in support of Syrian academics’ [a].

Advancing the Syrian Academic Community, Partnerships, and Research Capacity

Independent evaluator Teresa Hanley asserted that the Cara SP has ‘increased visibility of the Syrian participants to academia, policy makers and practitioners’ [j], and that these encounters have catalysed a number of collaborations and initiatives that ‘move beyond the Cara Syria Programme’s direct activities to more sustainable academic engagement and indeed livelihoods’ [j]. Hanley noted in particular that the roundtables in June 2019 had ‘brought participants together with international and local humanitarian responders to the Syria Crisis and academics from other parts of the world’, and that ‘participants interviewed noted their appreciation, particularly of the chance to discuss higher education development and other conflict-affected countries’ experience’ [j]. Following advice and encouragement from delegates at the research-led round tables [c], several Cara SP academics established the Academic Centre for Development and Peace Studies (ACDP), a Syrian-led civil society organisation and academic consortium in Gaziantep, Turkey, in December 2019. ACDP Co-Director Shaher Abdullateef attested to the impact of the roundtables in creating the impetus for ACDP: ‘[At the round tables] we heard different cases [from] Belarus, Bosnia Herzegovina, Kenya, Northern Ireland, Palestine, Serbia and South Africa. It was very useful to develop ideas about how to organise […] and what to do as a first step. […] we finally established [ACDP] as a space to collect [...] and to conduct research relative to Syria context. The idea of empowering Syrian academics [and] rais[ing] their voices is older than two years [but] I wasn’t sure if this is the right way to do it. During the event we Syrian participants were more confident, and the way to connect [with] and involve […] international academia was clearer, especially [with] great encouragement from the international participants.’ [c] Co-Director Fateh Shaban meanwhile asserted that ‘the invaluable support that the Cara Syria Programme has provided to Syrian academics in exile […] has helped us to sustain a working academic network and establish formal organisations such as our Centre, which now serves as a hub through which Syrian academics can access professional and research opportunities and engage effectively with stakeholders in Syria and in diaspora. […] The directors of ACDP began our collaboration on the Cara Syria Programme, and our network of affiliate members comprises many Syrian Programme participants, as well as international experts whom we met at Cara’s Roundtables funded by the University of Kent in 2019’ [d].

Evidence–based capacity building and support models developed by Parkinson and colleagues (e.g. **[R4, R6]**) have been implemented at several residential retreats and regular online events in 2018, 2019, and 2020. These have supported Syrian academics in writing over 100 grant applications; publishing over 30 peer-reviewed outputs as authors or co-authors (2017-20) [a], and attaining internationally recognised teaching fellowships [e].

Supporting Syrian Higher Education

Parkinson’s and colleagues’ research to inform the Cara SP’s academic development strategy [R3, R4] has enhanced Syrian teaching and learning through targeted CPD for academics teaching in Turkey and in northern Syria [a]. Abdullateef, Parkinson, and Sarmini’s research [R1] has enabled and enhanced distance teaching for learners in conflict-affected regions of northern Syria, delivered by exiled academics. For example, Rahmet Relief Foundation (a regional NGO) noted that this research [R1] has directly ‘enabled effective delivery of vital agricultural knowledge to learners in Syria, which has greatly benefitted […] stakeholders [whilst also] providing vital insight for others offering similar interventions’ [f]. Another NGO partner, Shafak, declared that this research had led to ‘refinement of educational delivery models that now ensure sustainable knowledge and support to learners and professionals, online, offline and through physical learning tools’ [g]. Furthermore, learners in northern Syria reported that the educational interventions developed through Parkinson’s and colleagues’ research provided an invaluable source of specialist training, and ‘expressed their appreciation of this learning and its value to their education and livelihoods’ [g]. One participant noted: ‘[It] helped me to review the knowledge on protected agriculture that I took during my studies which were cut off, and also increased my knowledge about methods and areas of use of aquaculture’ [h]. Shafak’s CEO, Omar Atik, stated that these interventions were ‘building hope, community and solidarity’ [g].