Universities warn Starmer: Evacuate Gaza scholarship students now or they will lose their place
Leaders of some of Britain’s top universities have warned Sir Keir Starmer that students on scholarships from Gaza will miss out on a place this year if they are not evacuated from the strip by the end of the week.
Palestinians who hold fully funded places to study at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Bristol, Exeter, Glasgow, Sussex and UCL could lose their place and be stranded in the enclave if they are not called to evacuate on dual lists on Wednesday 22 October or Sunday 26 October.
In a shared letter Independent, Vice-chancellors, principals and presidents of seven universities have also criticized Palestinian students being banned from bringing their dependents to the UK, saying ministers should use “discretion” to allow them to settle.
They warn that failure to do so will tear families apart and leave children in Gaza parentless. It means Palestinian students face an “impossible choice” between taking a life-changing place at a British university or leaving their families in a dangerous area.
Loay, 26, has a fully-funded place to study for a master’s degree in health at Oxford University but is being asked to leave his three-month-old daughter and wife in Gaza City.
There are places where the 25 students who have not been released yet can receive undergraduate, graduate and doctoral education. Although PhD students have been told they can start their classes after October, students without a PhD risk losing their places as the next release lists will not be announced for another month. Only nine people in the group want to bring their dependents.
While the statement praised the government’s recent evacuation of scholarship students and the UK’s role in efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, it requested urgent updates on the “timetable for the evacuation of all remaining eligible students” next week.
He added: “We are increasingly concerned that some eligible students may not yet be called for evacuations next week, and a small number of students, including babies under three months old or children with no other surviving parent, have been presented with the impossible option of leaving their children behind to take their university place.”
Unless students are on the double release list planned for this week, non-doctoral students will lose their places and their extraordinary efforts to secure places and full funding will be in vain, the statement said.
The group said Unicef offered to evacuate the academics and their families to the Kerem Shalom border gate on October 26 if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs gives the green light.
The call was backed by religious leaders in a separate letter signed by 35 rabbis and bishops, including the Bishop of Manchester and Rabbi Herschel Gluck OBE, who warned that “compassion cannot be thwarted by bureaucracy”.
“The academic year started weeks ago and we are at a turning point where universities can no longer keep places open. We are writing to encourage you to use your discretion to ensure that every parent academic is offered a place in these releases and that they can bring their children along.”
The following statements were made in the statement: “Giving these scholarships is offering to make a dream come true. Causing a student to lose his scholarship by not being evacuated on time or demanding that he leave his children in Gaza is to be responsible for a nightmare. It is not possible for mercy to be prevented by bureaucracy.”
Independent It has contacted Downing Street, the Home Office and the Foreign Office for comment.
