Why can’t Palestinian students from Gaza occupy their university locations in the UK?
Currently, Gaza has 76 Palestinian students who have obtained all the learning venues in 31 top universities in the UK. More than 35 of these students have full scholarships, while eight other students are waiting for the internet to get up and running so they can formally accept unconditional offers.
However, despite their achievements, all these students are currently unable to occupy these hardships because they cannot leave Gaza. For many of them, these places have been postponed since the previous school year due to the lack of a safe exit route.
A student like this, independent Previously, it was emphasized that 22-year-old Dalya Ibrahim Shehada Qeshta. She was given a place to study pharmacy at the University of Manchester, while her sister Dalal received a place in aeronautical engineering courses at the University of Bristol. Both have families in the UK, but are unable to leave Gaza due to physical disabilities and lack of financial support.
In response, the International Centre for Palestine Justice is an independent organization designed to protect its rights through law, politicians and scholars – signed an open letter with campaigning health workers and lawyer groups calling on the UK government to take immediate action.
Last week, nearly 5,000 academics, including me, also ran for Starmer Administration to promote the safe passage of these students from Gaza to the UK. These include more than 600 professors, four vice-presidents and vice-presidents, 12 deans, eight academicians of British colleges, and eight holders of Obes and MBEs.
Technical issues are twofold. The UK requires applicants to register their biometric data before processing the application, but the UK-authorized biometric registration center in Gaza was closed in October 2023. Although 2023 provides Ukrainians with a biometric extension agreement, the Palestine demands for extensions occupy the outbreak of extensions. Even scholars with government grants don’t have a single approval, even for scholars with government-issued scholarships.
Furthermore, if students do ensure these biometric delays, this will allow them to conduct biometric registration in a third country (such as Jordan or Egypt), they will not be able to leave Gaza. Therefore, the government must promote biometric delays and viable export paths. On August 6, another letter signed by more than 100 MPs was sent to Prime Minister Keir Starmer to call for urgent action on the issue.
It is worth noting that the governments of Ireland, Italy, France, Germany and Belgium all evacuated students with university degree offers as part of a wider evacuation effort to provide emergency medical services, especially for Palestinian children. There is no reasonable reason for the British government to fail to follow the law.
The profiles and wishes of these students have been widely reported. Students who take English language tests, write admission papers and conduct virtual interviews under the most horrible conditions – many from tents and temporary WiFi Hubs – are in trouble while waiting for the UK government to take action.
The IDF bombed all 11 universities in Gaza, leaving 88,000 students unable to continue their studies. Some of these universities were completely destroyed. Others are considered military bases, or centers for interrogation and torture for detainees. Realizing continuing education for students is crucial not only to the reconstruction of the academic field in Gaza in the future, but also to the reconstruction of the entire Gaza Strip.
The issue was repeatedly discussed in parliament throughout May and June, but so far the requirements of Gaza students have not changed and there is still no way to go out. Although the UK government recently announced it intends to promote emergency medical treatment evacuation from children in Gaza. As of last week, only three children from Gaza have arrived in the UK for treatment.
In 2024, a group of scholars and university administrators from the University of Gaza issued a lawsuit appeal. Scholasticide is a systematic destruction of educational institutions, as well as a target assassination of students and scholars – continuing to destroy everything left over Gaza. If the British government fails to pass safely through the safe passage of these promising scholars, then this will remain accomplices of scholars’ crimes.
More than 4,800 British scholars are committed to answering calls. They shared the view of their colleagues in Gaza that education is a fundamental human right.
These are test times, and the government’s position on this issue is a measure of its commitment to universal values of human rights, justice and equal opportunity. Will it practice its preaching and promote the entry of these heroic young scholars, or will it continue to abandon them to the tender mercy of the Israeli war machine?
Avi Shaim is an honorary professor of international relations at Oxford University and the author of the Gaza genocide: Israel’s long war against Palestine
