Some of the things YORK STAR do include: Volunteering at local refugee projects, Campaigning to improve the lives of refugees, Educating and raising awareness about refugees and asylum. YORK STAR has been running for 3 years and we are a relatively small society,however we have big plans for what we can achieve in our local community as well as in fundraising for STAR National amongst other refugee-centred campaigns.

STAR, in partnership with the National Union of Students (NUS), has run its Equal Access Campaign since 2008. The project aims to provide support and provisions of scholarships for refugees and asylum seekers, for which we are raising money. Currently, people who have sought refuge in the UK do not have equal access to university; most are classed as international students which means they are charged higher fees. On top of this, most cannot get a student loan and do not have the right to work to earn money to pay their fees and living costs. We believe that equal access to higher education is of paramount importance, as education is the key to opportunity. For this, your contribution will have a big impact on improving the living standards of current refugees in the UK.

In the last three years,we have put pressure on the University of York to start a scholarship for refugees and asylum seekers who would like the opportunity to study and UoY now offers a full scholarship (waiving of tuition fees) to three undergrads and 1 postgrad in every years intake. This is an incredible accomplishment that we are very proud of, and we are proud of our committee members who continue to show up with time and enthusiasm to support the scholarship -even having some of the brilliant recipients of the scholarship on our committee.

However, we continue to fundraise in order to keep the scholarship viable and also to encourage the University to grow its intake. STAR National continues to pressure Universities to offer similar schemes and to signpost refugees and asylum seekers to them.

The money you donate will go directly towards these projects within STARs work, to provide the same opportunity that we have all had at York to people who have been forced to leave their homes to find safety.