A professor has launched a project aimed at bringing the experience of a British university lecture theatre to the ¡°Jungle¡± refugee camp in Calais.

Refugees will study for a three-day accredited course on life stories, taught by a small team of academics in the camp this weekend (4-6 December). It will be led by Corinne Squire, professor of social sciences and co-director of the Centre for Narrative Research at the University of East London.

The students to benefit from the initiative, which includes reading, writing, art, poetry and photography, will be a group of 18- to 35-year-old men who signed up for the course when Professor Squire visited the camp last month. They include a college lecturer from Ethiopia, a pharmacist from Syria, English literature and electrical engineering graduates from Sudan and a veterinary science student from Eritrea.

Such settlers were among those most often demonised by the media, Professor Squire said.

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¡°In fact, these men are students and professionals desperate to make something of their lives, and they have the resources to do it,¡± she said.

¡°Many of the people in the camp are highly educated and keen to continue their education. They are in a difficult position, stuck outside a small town in a place they do not want to be and [that] does not want them.¡±

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She added that because settlements such as the ¡°Jungle¡± are not recognised as official refugee camps, settlers there do not receive the educational support that is available in official camps.

¡°Many residents told us that they want to record and reflect on what has happened to them. They want their traumatic experiences and journeys to gain a wider hearing,¡± she said.

¡°Camp residents do not just want to survive. Like anyone else, they want to live creative and productive lives.¡±

The volunteer language school L¡¯?cole La?que du Chemin des Dunes,?engineering graduate school?L¡¯?cole des Arts et M¨¦tiers ParisTech and Jungle Books Library, which is based at the camp, will also be volunteering with Professor Squire.

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ellie.bothwell@tesglobal.com