The Libyan academic Jehan Alswaihli has confronted emigration, cancer, and irregular scholarship payments since moving to Britain in 2013 to study for a doctorate in mathematics at the University of Reading.
Alswaihli discussed her experiences as an academic in exile in a recent interview with Al-Fanar Media. In commemoration of World Refugee Day, observed on June 20, we present her story as part of a series of articles on female academics who rebuilt their lives after fleeing from conflict zones.
Alswaihli, who was born in Misurata, Libya, in 1971, taught at the Faculty of Education at Misurata University for five years before moving to Britain with a Libyan government scholarship. But her scholarship payments failed because of the civil war and power struggle in Libya since 2011.
Alswaihli obtained her Ph.D. in two years ago but rules out returning home now because of the instability in Libya, the fact that her children are in British schools, and her continuing treatment for breast cancer, which was diagnosed during her doctoral study.
At present she works part-time at a Kaplan International institute in London teaching mathematics and statistics to international students to prepare them to join British universities.
She hopes to land a permanent, academic job in a European university, but the search is “very difficult,” she said, because of the high number of master’s and doctoral degree holders within and outside Europe and the intense competition.
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