![\"Kanku](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/5017781_3_articleinlinemobile_CMK25032026_UCC_Education_20Pathways_Kanku_20Biselele_005.jpg\" "\\"Kanku")
Kanku Biselele.\u00a0<\/p>\nA civil engineer who moved to Ireland after fleeing the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo with his brother has become the first student to graduate from UCC under a scholarship which supports refugees.<\/p>\n
After receiving refugee status in Uganda, Kanku Biselele and his brother had no income and were staying at a friend\u2019s house after sleeping on the floor of the refugee centre.<\/p>\n
Kanku had a bachelor\u2019s degree, had graduated, and was looking to pursue further education.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe internet was a lifeline for me,\u201d Kanku told The Echo.\n <\/p>\n
Kanku wanted the chance to leave Uganda and pursue a degree that would eventually give him security, a home, and further opportunities.<\/p>\n
He applied to the EU passworld scholarship, which offers refugees in Uganda the opportunity to study for a master\u2019s degree in Ireland.<\/p>\n
The scheme provides five students with a full fee waiver, on-campus accommodation, and a stipend for the year, which is provided by community support.<\/p>\n
It targets areas of skill shortages in Ireland, and universities are free to select students in disciplines with a high demand for employers.<\/p>\n
Life changed<\/p>\n
The programme also allows refugee scholars to go directly from graduation to meaningful employment and contribute to the Irish economy.<\/p>\n
For Kanku, his life changed when he received the call saying he was accepted as part of the EU passworld scholarship, enabling him to attend UCC.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was putting it out there,\u201d Kanku said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou feel you had a chance, but then you get rejections, and you lose hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
It took four months before Kanku was invited to start in the 2024 academic year.<\/p>\n
He remembers the exact date he heard from the co-ordinator of the project, Ruth Hally, for an interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat feeling was overwhelming. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever responded to anything so fast,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no time to waste, and I said: \u2018Yes, I will be there.\u2019<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBecause what am I really doing? I\u2019m unemployed, and nothing is going on in my life.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI have to be there.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
Overwhelming<\/p>\n
Kanku said it was \u201coverwhelming\u201d and \u201cdaunting\u201d to go through an interview when he had never even used Microsoft Teams before, but Ms Hally made him \u201cfeel special\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the rest is history,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kanku Biselele.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, Kanku is the first student to graduate under the Education Pathways Ireland programme with a postgraduate diploma in sustainable energy.<\/p>\n
A group of 20 friends and lecturers who Kanku now considers family, including his cousin, arrived on campus to celebrate his graduation, welcoming him with applause and yells.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know all of them were coming, really.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know this was who created this? Who started it, you know?\n <\/p>\n
\u201cWho motivated all of them to come, I don\u2019t know, but you see the numbers, and I\u2019m quite delighted,\u201d said Kanku.<\/p>\n
He added that he now feels a sense of belonging, has integrated into Cork, and he will also start learning the Irish language soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve met so many people through this opportunity that came into my life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve become my friends, sisters, parents.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A civil engineer who moved to Ireland after fleeing the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo with his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[781,9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,15914,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-405620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-cork-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-ucc","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}