We suggest taking at minimum a whole year to work towards becoming an FE College of Sanctuary. This will help ensure this is a reflective, intentional and collaborative process and the Sanctuary values are wholly understood and embedded. As we can currently only run application cohorts once a year, if you are unable to join the next cohort then you should have more time to work through this process and will develop a more meaningful application.
STEP ONE – Start the process.
FE Colleges must first sign an Organisation Pledge which affirms their commitment to the City of Sanctuary vision of welcome in the UK and upholding the City of Sanctuary values and Sanctuary principles: this is also one of the eight minimum criteria to become a FE Colleges of Sanctuary. This takes less than two minutes.
On signing the pledge colleges should announce their intention to become a College of Sanctuary within the college community and beyond and make sure everyone understands what this means. The pledge should be displayed publicly in college and included on a webpage.
Please note that if you represent an Education Group or consortium of colleges, we expect each college to sign the pledge in order to be recognised, in line with our place-based approach.
STEP TWO – Connect with City of Sanctuary UK & familiarise yourself with key resources.
Colleges will be contacted by the FE Colleges of Sanctuary Lead to learn about possible timeframes for your award, next steps and details of the support we can offer. Please note that with limited capacity we are only able to manage one cohort of applications per year currently.
Make sure key college contacts are subscribed to the FE Colleges of Sanctuary Newsletter and familiarise yourself with the information and resources on the website, including any upcoming events or meetings.
STEP THREE – Review current practice and make an action plan.
We advise establishing a working group from across college departments who can undertake an audit of what the college has already done to meet the minimum criteria and identify areas to develop.
In parallel, organise workshops with students seeking sanctuary and ESOL students to centre their voices, feedback and contributions in this process. We also advise consulting local refugee organisations to learn about barriers to accessing further education for people seeking sanctuary and look at ways you can help overcome them.
Drawing on these reviews and consultations, create an action plan to fulfil outstanding criteria and improve provision and practice. Link this to the college development plan and other college policies and structures to ensure this is a sustained and intentional effort.
STEP FOUR – Begin the application.
We advise starting the application process early and treating it as an ongoing effort as you develop and refine your practice and activities over at least a year. Read the application guidance note to learn how to clearly format the application and begin to add relevant points to the application form. As this develops over your journey, save supporting evidence to accompanying folder.
The FE College of Sanctuary Team will ask to see a draft application in advance of the final application deadline – they will provide feedback and, if the draft is sufficiently strong, will invite you to submit a final application.
Make sure City of Sanctuary UK is set up as a supplier to enable the transfer of the award fee* upon being informed about a successful award. Contact the Finance Officer for details on how to transfer this fee.
STEP FIVE – Submit your application and supporting evidence folder by the agreed deadline.
This will be reviewed by an appraisal team comprising of an education expert, a person with lived experience and someone with local insight into your local refugee/asylum context (where possible). They will provide formal feedback to help you prepare for an appraisal meeting where applicant colleges can clarify any questions or queries the appraisal team has and all stakeholders can discuss ideas and suggestions for how the college can move forward.
As long as the appraisal team feel confident your college upholds the City of Sanctuary values and has engaged meaningfully with the criteria the appraisal team can finalise the award decision and final feedback as soon as possible after the meeting.
Once informed about your successful award, transfer the award fee*. As soon as this has been received you can announce your award and plan a celebration in collaboration with your local group and/or Lead. Make sure to share your achievements on social media and on the college website and reach out to local press. Continue to implement your sanctuary efforts and develop a plan for re-appraisal in three years.
Application Deadlines
Due to very limited capacity we are only able to run application cohorts once a year. Currently this cohort runs from June to May. If your college misses the start of this cohort, we suggest using the extra time to make a start on your application – the longer you take, the more meaningful this process and less pressure this will be. Make sure to sign up to the newsletter and sign the supporting organisation pledge to be notified about future application opportunities.
*Award Fee
The award fee for the 2025/26 Academic Year is £660 for the three-year duration of the award. We only ask for the fee to be transferred once a college has successfully achieved the award, and provide extensive support to colleges on the journey to the award – however long this takes.
Please note that this award fee does not begin to cover the costs of the staff time and resources needed to offer this programme and so we also ask colleges to support City of Sanctuary UK through fundraising or other donations, where possible. At a time when we are experiencing significant levels of interest and are unable to fund a designated member of staff, every donation helps secure the future of the programme. Thank you for your support.