UCL Urged to Lower Fees for Students Trapped in Gaza
Por Joe Sandler Clarke — Novara Media
Five Palestinian students who won places at University College London (UCL) could miss out on their studies and remain stuck in Gaza because their scholarships don’t cover the cost of their fees.
The students have been offered Global Masters Scholarships from UCL worth £15,000 but still can’t afford the remainder as they are being charged international fees, which can be over £40,000.
The UK government has agreed to help Gazan students offered places at UK universities leave the territory and get visas. But this support is limited to those with fully funded scholarships covering both fees and living costs.
That means students with offers who lack full scholarships will have to get out of the territory without UK government help.
As Gaza has no airport and its coastline is blockaded by the Israeli military, anyone looking to leave the territory has to do so via a third country, creating administrative hurdles for the students.
Last year, advocacy groups who assisted Gazan students coming to the UK with the immigration process described the process as “chaos” . Some students ended up not arriving until December, months into their course.
The campaign group UCL Action for Palestine has set up a fundraiser for the students that has so far raised £50,000 .
They are calling on UCL to waive international fees for Gazan students and charge them home fees instead. Typically, home fees are reserved for UK residents and Irish citizens but there are exemptions. Students from Ukraine, for example, are eligible .
“This is not a radical ask,” UCL Action for Palestine told Novara Media. “If UCL cared about Palestinian students, they would be trying to remove the barriers that stand in the way of them having a real opportunity to study at our university, not kicking the can down the road and promising to do better next year.”
A spokesperson for UCL said the university does not comment on individual student circumstances, but noted that over the last two years, it “has worked extensively to support students from Gaza through a combination of scholarships, philanthropic funding, accommodation, immigration support and specialist wellbeing services.”
They added: “We continue to work closely with offer holders to understand their circumstances and explore what support may be available to them.
“We are currently reviewing our humanitarian scholarship provision to consider whether, and how, support could be expanded in future years. As part of that work, we are carefully considering how best to support students affected by conflict and humanitarian crises.” =
The five students are Mais, Reem, Amjad, Reham and Farah. They are due to start master’s degrees in public health nutrition, civil engineering, sustainable education, urban planning and project management, respectively.
Fonte: Novara Media
