Jimmy (not his real name) was among the quietest of the Burmese refugee students we taught. His English was the most hesitant but at the interview and during the entrance exam his sharp intelligence shone through. He was accepted into the diploma in liberal studies program for Burmese refugees and migrants on the Thai-Burma border.
The course is one of the world's most successful programs in bringing internationally accredited higher education to refugees.
It is reckoned that less than 1 per cent of refugees have access to higher education globally. This is partially because being exiled in a refugee camp was regarded as a temporary phenomenon.
In fact, over the last decade, the number of protracted refugee situations (described by UNHCR as 'being in exile for five years or more') has shot up from 45 per cent to 90 per cent and the average length of stay has gone from nine years in 1993 to 17 years today.
Many of the refugees, including some of our students, who live in nine camps strewn along the Thai side of the border with Burma, were born in the bamboo shelters that leak sieve-like in the long rainy season while the dirt tracks turn into quagmires. They all fled persecution in Burma following wars between ethnic groups and the Tatmadaw (the generals' army).
Those wars continue, causing massive dislocation within the various regions. In Kachin State bordering China, over 30,000 villagers have had to flee their homes because of clashes between the Kachin Independence Army and the Burmese army since June this year. Many, if they can, will make their way to the camps in Thailand.
But back to Jimmy. He is from one of the ethnic groups and saw his parents shot in front of him in a raid on his village by the Burmese military when he was a young adolescent. He and his brother fled into the jungle and made their way to relatives in Yangon. They put him through secondary school where he excelled, especially in music.
He studied Japanese and won a scholarship to a Japanese university, but the government refused him a passport. He then made his way to Thailand where he heard about the diploma course. He graduated in 2010.
Most graduates have been