Erasmus+ project
EqualAccess
Strengthening Partnerships to Ensure Equal Access to Education for War-Affected Displaced School Students
Project period: October 2026 – September 2028
About the project
EqualAccess aims to improve access to secondary and higher education for Ukrainian children and young people displaced by war in Slovakia and Poland.
Led by SME SPOLU in partnership with the Ukrainian House Foundation in Warsaw, the project addresses language barriers, educational gaps, complex admission procedures, and psychosocial challenges that prevent forcibly displaced students from continuing their education.
Through cross-border cooperation, the project builds on the experience of Ukrainian community schools in Bratislava and Warsaw to develop more inclusive and sustainable educational pathways to universities and colleges in Ukraine and European Union countries.
Key Project Activities
Understanding Educational Barriers
Comparative Needs Assessment and Barrier Mapping
Identifying barriers and gaps to education through data collection (questionnaires and focus groups) with school students, their parents and educators in Slovakia and Poland. We will map the linguistic, psychosocial, administrative and informational barriers that students who fled the war face in accessing upper-secondary and higher education. The findings will be brought together in a Comparative Needs Assessment Report and will shape the support piloted later in the project.
Learning and Developing Solutions Together
Cross-Border Knowledge Exchange and Methodological Workshop
Sharing expertise and developing practical tools to enable equal access to higher education institutions for learners from Ukraine who fled the war. At a one-day methodological workshop in Bratislava, educators, psychologists and practitioners from the educational hubs in Bratislava and Warsaw will exchange good practices with school administrators and university representatives. Their shared expertise will be captured in a Joint Methodological Toolkit.
Student Support Measures
Pilot Implementation in Bratislava and Warsaw
Academic mentoring, information support and guidance for students. We will pilot jointly developed support, including mentoring and counselling sessions with mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), orientation sessions about universities and upper-secondary schools, meetings with university and college representatives, and meetings with graduates of our educational hubs who are now studying at universities and colleges. The pilot will let us test and refine our approaches in real educational settings.
Strengthening Pathways into Formal Education
Pilot Adaptation of Educational Pathways
Language preparation and quality education support aimed at successful graduation and enrollment into higher education. Ukrainian community-led educational hubs in Bratislava and Warsaw will pilot adapted pathways, including preparatory courses for maturity examinations and host-country language modules, building sustainable educational pathways to universities and colleges in Ukraine and EU countries.
150+
students
Expected impact
The project aims to directly support at least 150 war-affected Ukrainian students, strengthening their academic preparation, language skills, and opportunities to continue their education.
EqualAccess will also develop a Comparative Needs Assessment Report and a Joint Methodological Toolkit, contributing to more inclusive and sustainable educational practices across Europe.
Project information
Project period
October 2026 – September 2028
Programme
Erasmus+ KA210-SCH
Coordinator
SME SPOLU o.z. (Slovakia)
Target group
War-affected Ukrainian students, primarily Grades 7–11
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the granting authority. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.