Virtual relations have allowed academics in the Gaza Strip to continue their research despite the widespread destruction of universities in the Israeli-Hamas war.
Speaking to Times Higher Education‘s At the Digital Universities UK event, Basma Hajir, a lecturer in comparative and international education at the University of Bristol, explained that she set up a fellowship program to support Gazan academics with an initial grant of just $13,500.
Hajir stressed that despite the destruction of the physical infrastructure in Gaza, higher education has indeed continued and academics are still working despite the conditions.
The Gaza Education Research Virtual Fellowship awarded fellowships to three scholars across Al-Aqsa University and the Islamic University of Gaza; virtual access to research, communication and teaching resources; and online professional development workshops to work on projects based on the topic of scholasticide—a term coined by researchers to describe the destruction of education in the Palestinian territories.
Projects include the education crisis in Gaza and the experiences of female higher education students who are homeless in Gaza.
Hajir said the program is a “direct response” to the vacancies in Gazan university leaders following the damage done to the universities and is “a first step.”
“This is important because it shows that even academics with limited resources are able to do something meaningful and generate solidarity and material support.”
But, he said there are limits to what one person can do, and programs like this need support from senior leaders.
The initiative drew inspiration from existing scholarships offered by the University of Leeds, SOAS, the University of London and the University of Liverpool and aligned with these to support academics living in conflict.
Scholars have described visual relationships as “transitional” and “lifeline” in response.
Another said, “I felt my academic self disappear. This fellowship not only helped me heal … It opened doors for me that I didn’t think were possible. It was a way of life.”
Hajir said the response shows “how important these programs are to these scholars in Gaza, not only to further their academic work, but also to confirm who they are and their purpose as scholars,” adding that it has had a “positive” impact within the scholarly community.
“What the professors described as an incredibly positive outcome was not just for them, but for their peers, their communities and their students.
“One scholar was talking about how sometimes he had to go to his neighbor’s house to connect to the Internet to join meetings, and how his neighbor can progress just knowing that the academic work is still going on.”
But the academics involved also faced challenges, and Hajir described how one of the academics “was getting smaller and smaller in every meeting” during the famine seen in Gaza last summer: “He was struggling to continue his academic work because he was literally hungry.
Hajir is looking to extend this program with the aim of making it an annual program, adding that he has been contacted by many other universities in the world about doing similar programs in their institutions.
Omar Shweiki, director of Friends of Palestinian Universities, added that there is an urgent need for international universities to provide material support to Gazan universities to allow them to continue teaching.
“Although there was a cease-fire agreement last fall, the conditions under which people teach and study are still very bad. There is currently no chance for proper reconstruction, so it is a question of survival. And our universities can play a very important role in supporting the intellectual and Palestinian efforts to maintain their academic communities.”
