Struggle to support Gaza universities as war intensifies

Initiatives to support university students, academics and researchers in the beleaguered Gaza Strip are floundering as Israel intensifies its 22-month-long war on the enclave, despite an increase in student enrolment at certain universities. New initiatives and appeals are underway to provide critical support and ensure academia is not erased, including a European Commission-backed pilot project for Gazan researchers.

In the months after the Israeli war on Gaza started, the Nablus, West Bank-based An Najah National University in partnership with the Mediterranean Universities Union (Unione delle Università del Mediterraneo, UNIMED), which comprises 184 universities from 25 countries, launched, in collaboration with other partners, a Technical Education Support Initiative (TESI) to support Gaza's students through virtual learning platforms and open or shared resources.

“An Najah asked Gazan students to express their interest to continue to study, and 49,600 responded out of 90,000 students. That was an amazing message to all of us,” Marcello Scalisi, director of UNIMED, told University World News.

The initiative garnered more than 200 responses from universities and institutions around the world that were willing to provide support to Gaza, including volunteers to teach online courses. It has, however, “been challenging to coordinate and to meet students’ needs with university capacities”, said Scalisi.

In the first phase, in early 2024, more than 7,000 students expressed interest, with around 2,100 formally registered at An Najah for online tuition. Across the first three phases, from February to summer 2024, 5,107 registered and 1,963 (38%) successfully completed their assignments despite the conflict.

“These numbers are very low, but, considering the situation, it’s amazing. We now have a few hundred students taking online courses with An Najah University. This is why we are trying to look for donors to support more students,” said Scalisi.

Virtual universities

The war has devastated higher education in Gaza, with 20 institutions heavily damaged and 60 university buildings destroyed, while an estimated 1,111 university students have been killed and 2,317 injured, according to Palestinian Authority ministry of education and higher education figures.

Some 5,100 academics and university employees in Gaza are unable to receive salaries, while 129 university staff and professors have been killed.

As a result, Gaza Strip “universities now exist virtually”, said 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, to University World News.

“There are no buildings or facilities, everything is damaged or destroyed, and there is little food or water. Students are studying remotely, but it’s challenging to get an internet connection in Gaza – it’s expensive and risky, as students need to go to internet cafes or co-working spaces, and these are targeted. Some students were killed while doing assignments.

“We are adapting our teaching modalities and evaluation approach, to be flexible and cope with the challenges of communications. If, for example, students are not able to sit for a final exam, we do not consider it a failure but being absent, to give them another chance to sit the exam next semester,” he said.

Financial support

The Emergency Committee of Universities in Gaza has set up a scholarship fund, ISNAD, run by welfare association Taawon, to pay the fees of 15,000 Palestinian students and university staff at three universities – Al-Azhar University, the Islamic University of Gaza, and Al-Aqsa University, which before the war collectively served 72% of Gaza’s 90,000 university students. The initiative has supported 4,600 students to resume their learning and enabled 1,300 students to complete their degrees and graduate, according to ISNAD.

Out of a target of raising US$16 million, US$1.5 million had been raised by January 2025, and as of August, around US$6 million. Shaban said far more needs to be raised, pointing out that the annual budget of Al-Azhar University alone had been US$20 million prior to 2024. “And that figure, frankly, was not enough even before the war, as Gaza was under siege, and there were high levels of poverty and unemployment, so not all students could pay fees,” said Shaban.

Despite the conflict, which has killed over 62,000 people, according to the Gaza ministry of health, and caused widespread destruction, the number of students enrolling at universities has increased, said Shaban.

“Some students lost their jobs or left school before the war, and because of the collapse of the economy, some now see an opportunity to sign up for online courses and obtain degrees. My university had 10,000 students, and now we have around 11,000,” he said.

To enable more students to study, UNIMED is in discussions with the Palestinian Authority education and higher education ministry to offer more online courses and virtual labs and is also in discussions with UNESCO to launch an initiative to improve digital infrastructure in Gaza, as soon as possible, said Scalisi.

Research and other support

At the same time, UNIMED is preparing to launch a pilot initiative under the Horizon Europe programme to support and reconnect Gazan researchers, in Gaza and the diaspora, with the international research community.

The 18-month project, called Action to support Gazan researchers, which is to have a €1 million (US$1.17 million) budget, will support 50 Gazan researchers as part of the first phase.

“The UNIMED proposal is now under evaluation, and if this works, a larger intervention will be budgeted for 2027,” said Scalisi.

The first phase is to analyse what research is underway in Gaza and assess capacity needs to provide immediate support to an initial cohort of researchers through a Virtual Research Collaboration Hub.

“It also aims to prioritise research areas and the national priorities of the Ministry of Education, like water, health and engineering,” Cristina Stefanelli, senior project manager at UNIMED coordinating the initiative for researchers from Gaza, told University World News. Mentoring and career guidance is also to be provided to researchers.

“It is a do no harm approach, and for inclusive engagement. Another element in the design of the project is to adopt a trauma-informed approach, acknowledging participants’ emotional and psychological issues, and the needs of participants with disabilities.

“We are also aware that support for Gaza may reinforce inequalities with colleagues in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, so we’re trying to adopt an inclusive approach by promoting as far as possible national cohesion in all the territories,” said Stefanelli.

Other initiatives underway include the Academic Action Network for Palestine (Act-for-Pal), a Palestinian and Jordanian academic-led body providing financial support for students and professors through stipends of US$100 to US$1,000.

“We are doing this as a way to help students graduate, and to provide money to some of the professors who haven’t received salaries for months,” Rana Dajani, professor of biology and biotechnology at Hashemite University, Jordan, and co-founder of Act-for-Pal, told University World News.

“Ours is a long-term project to promote academic freedom and autonomy of Palestinian academics, to foster sustainability and, most importantly, reduce dependency on external aid,” she said.