Hania is an Information Technology (IT) Engineering student at a private university in Malaysia, but she is not like her classmates.

Having fled Pakistan, the top-scoring student is living in a country that does not recognise refugees, making it difficult for her to access even the most basic of education, let alone tertiary education.

She is also an anomaly among her refugee peers, for Hania is one of five recipients of the Fugee’s HiEd Scholarship, an academic scholarship programme for refugees.

Fugee programme director Abdulmajid Chahrour said it was...