In war, scholarships offer students a lifeline to the future

The conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria have been disastrous for higher education, with hundreds of thousands of students affected by disruption to their studies, infrastructural damage to centres of learning, and the psychological toll of war.

The impact has been somewhat ameliorated by scholarships, both in-country and abroad, which have provided opportunities for some students to continue their studies through financial contributions, in safer environments, and with the help of support and learning programmes.

“You are not a normal student during a war. You don’t eat well or sleep well. [You are not] able to mentally focus on your studies. Yet you've been asked to study a lot and do quizzes and exams,” said Wadea Ziada (23), who was displaced six times, yet managed to complete his undergraduate degree in pharmacy from Gaza’s Al-Azhar University.

“I was lucky I was financially able to complete the degree, as every time I had to access the internet it cost me ILS12 to ILS20 (US$3.35-US$5.58), and I had to walk two or three kilometres to get a connection to attend classes remotely and download PDFs. I became a self-studying machine during the war,” he told University World News from Deir al Ballah in central Gaza.

Assessing the damage

While tenuous ceasefires are now underway in Gaza and Lebanon, and a post-conflict Syria is emerging following the overthrow of the regime of Bashar Al Assad in December 2024 after 13 years of war, significant work needs to be carried out to determine the damage done to higher education in the region.

Dr Ahmed Abu Shaban, dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University, a member of the university board and representative on the Emergency Committee of Universities in Gaza, told University World News that researchers need to scientifically assess and document the impact of the war in Gaza, which he called a “genocide”.

They would need to work across all areas, he said, including the economy, health, infrastructure, education, the environment and social structures.

All of Gaza’s universities were destroyed or significantly damaged in the 15-month conflict that has left over 47,000 dead, with 5,213 students, three university presidents and 95 university deans and professors killed, according to Palestinian officials in Gaza and non-governmental organisations.

Over 90,000 students were not able to physically attend university, although some institutions offered remote learning.

“Whatever university buildings that are left are out of service. Rebuilding will require structures to be knocked down and built again – lecture halls, administrative buildings, research stations, all have been destroyed,” said Shaban. Over the past 32 years, he said his faculty buildings had been destroyed three times before the current war. “And now a fourth time,” he said.

Fleeing Syria

In Syria, the conflict killed over half a million people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, displacing 7 million internally and forcing over 6 million to leave the country. An estimated 2,000 university professionals and over 100,000 university-qualified students fled Syria

“Brain-drain, lack of resources, corruption, student mental health, inequalities, violence and politicisation were found to impact the quality of the sector,” noted one study on Syria’s higher education from the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, in Qatar.

As the Syrian conflict intensified in 2018, Sham Aldagastani (26) from Hama left with her sister after both were awarded full scholarships through Casa do Regalo, the Portugal-based Global Platform for Higher Education in Emergencies, to study dentistry at the Portuguese Catholic University.

“It was getting more dangerous all over Syria and we couldn't predict the future. Financially it was very difficult as university fees were very expensive.

“It became difficult to complete the course due to the economic and security situation. The chance to go to Portugal was truly for the better, as it was safe and we could complete our studies,” she told University World News.

Constant stress in Lebanon

In Lebanon, the two-month conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in late 2024 displaced over a million people and killed more than 4,000, according to Lebanese government figures.

An estimated 549,675 students and 45,400 teachers were in directly affected areas, according to the country's Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

All 50 universities were impacted by the conflict, but particularly institutions and students in Beirut's southern suburbs and southern Lebanon where the conflict was most intense.

“The war directly affected us and how we usually perform academically. Even living with family, it was not the proper environment in which to study. My family and I were living under constant stress as the bombing was near our home.

“When we were hearing about the martyrdom of friends, it was very difficult, we were unable to open a book and simply study. That is why our academic performance took a direct hit,” said Maryam Abdessater (21), a third-year pharmacy student at the Lebanese International University (LIU), in Beirut.

“My university wasn't damaged, but a number of friends couldn't attend exams as they travelled abroad, or had no homes to live in. The same applies to professors: some left Lebanon.”

Scholarships

Scholarships have long been offered to Palestinian students and academics due to the longstanding situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

As Shaban noted, prior to the latest conflict, Palestinians were unable to have a “proper academic community and exposure” as they were not able to travel and participate in knowledge exchanges with the international academic community.

“It was not just internationally, but also nationally,” he said of the restrictions. “It was very difficult for academics from Gaza to even travel to the West Bank,” he said.

As the latest war on Gaza began, some 555 students did not receive the international scholarships they were offered prior to the conflict, according to the pro-Palestinian Middle East Monitor, while those that had scholarships or had been granted places as visiting students abroad scrambled to leave.

Shaban said some medical and veterinary students were accepted as visiting students in Southern Africa, Belgium, Iraq, Pakistan and Morocco, “but only a minority were able to leave Gaza”.

In May 2024, the last border crossing, at Rafah with Egypt, was closed. “Even if students wished to go, they could not. The vast majority of students were stuck inside Gaza,” he said.

In December 2023, the Qatar-based Education Above All (EAA) Foundation’s Al Fakhoora programme allocated over 100 scholarships to Palestinians to continue their education in Qatar, as part of its Rebuilding Hope Initiative to address the immediate needs of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The scholarships had promising prospects, but could not benefit everyone. Despite being a high-achieving student and receiving necessary logistical support, Saja Abdalaal (21), currently in her third year of studying data science and artificial intelligence at the University College of Applied Sciences in Gaza, was unable to travel to Doha due to the devastating effects of war.

“Before I could travel, the Rafah crossing was closed and destroyed … My entire family had been evacuated earlier, so I stayed alone after being displaced at least six times,” she said.

Connectivity challenges

Abdalaal was able to continue her studies in Gaza, although studying remotely was complicated by her laptop battery having been damaged by the intermittent power supply. “We rely entirely on solar energy, so on rainy or cloudy days we couldn't charge our devices or access a good internet connection,” she said.

The war delayed her fourth and final year of studies “by a year”, but she is in a better position than many others.

“I have a friend who stayed in northern Gaza. She registered for the online semester, but things worsened in her area – both the internet and electricity became unavailable, and she couldn't continue,” she said.

Gazan youth also missed out on being able to apply for scholarships due to the war. Mariam Sersawy (28), a former beneficiary of the Al Fakhoora programme at the EAA Foundation, was not able to apply for a scholarship for a masters degree.

“I didn’t have an internet connection for seven months, so I didn’t know about any scholarships and was unable to apply. I'm very disappointed,” she told University World News from Gaza. Sersawy was displaced seven times and lost her 13-year-old brother during an air strike on a school she was helping to run.

An English literature graduate of Gaza’s Al-Aqsa University, Sersawy had a four-year scholarship through the Al Fakhoora programme.

“It was more than a scholarship as it helped build my identity and personality. The most fruitful thing I got from it was training in civil leadership. It was a chance to prove who the real leaders are in the community during this war,” she said.

Other scholarships arose due to the conflict, for example, a five-place scheme at the UK's Oxford University was announced in September under the university's Palestine Crisis Scholarship Scheme.

Palestine-based scholarships

In Gaza, the Emergency Committee of Universities set up a scholarship fund, ISNAD, run by welfare association Taawon, to pay the fees of Palestinian students at three of the major universities, Al-Azhar University, the Islamic University, and Al-Aqsa University, which collectively serve 72% of Gaza’s university students.

The ISNAD programme aimed to provide 30,000 scholarships to support 15,000 students as well as university staff in Gaza with a target of raising US$16 million. However, as of January 2025, it had only raised US$1.5 million.

“The most effective scholarships for Gaza are those offered to students inside Gaza to pay the fees at universities there,” said Shaban. “We believe we should keep struggling to sustain scholarship in Palestine as a means of sustaining our Palestinian identity.”

The EAA Foundation has also been operating in Lebanon, providing – in partnership with the American University of Beirut (AUB) – 316 scholarships to marginalised Lebanese, Palestinian, and Syrian youth.
One recipient was Lebanese student Christa Maria Bou Raad (21), now in her final year of an environmental health bachelor's course at the AUB.

The activities offered by the foundation helped her during the conflict: “They brought scholars together, to share our emotions and brought us a sense of relief, to boost our creativity in harsh times when you are surrounded by negative thoughts. They also checked up on us, and provided us with reassurance, which was needed,” she said.

The war was “shocking”, she added, and impacted future plans. “It delayed our masters applications,” said Bou Raad, who is currently seeking a scholarship abroad.

Help from abroad

Internationally, Portugal's Casa do Regalo currently has 41 scholarship students, the majority of whom are Syrian, according to Pedro Lourtie, the organisation's secretary general.

Jusoor, a charitable organisation registered in Canada, the UK, Jordan and Lebanon, is also offering scholarships to Syrians, Palestinian-Syrians (those who have a Syrian passport but state they are Palestinian), and other refugees in Syria (such as Iraqis) to study at universities in North America, Europe and Lebanon.

“I think there will be a need for more scholarships for students,” said Sarah Shedeed, head of scholarships at Jusoor. “Jusoor prides itself on being part of creating the next generation of Syrian leaders. There will definitely be a need for more support for the education of Syrian students, whether in Syria, host countries, or abroad,” she told University World News.

In addition to financial support, the organisation offers much-needed psycho-social support. “This can be overlooked. To ensure students are getting support is definitely key to making sure they're successful,” said Shedeed.

Shadi Kalthoun (29) would agree. Studying at Damascus University in 2014, Kalthoun applied for a scholarship at Casa do Regalo, and moved to Portugal that year. He struggled to adapt to living in Portugal and studying in another language, failing the first two years.

“I wasn’t diagnosed by a doctor but for the first two years I had depression, as it was a very big cultural shock, the differences between the way I have been living and the European lifestyle.

“And I could only understand 20%-30% of my classes so I had to quadruple the effort of any normal student to understand. It was a big challenge for me, and for most Syrians,” he told University World News.

Kalthoun completed his masters in civil engineering, and while his studies were difficult, the scholarship offered a way out of Syria and any problems he experienced took place under the former management of Casa do Regalo, which has since seen a change in leadership.

“I left my country at war. To have any hope of studying and have a different future, I took the scholarship,” he said.