By Lenny Osler, News Editor
The University of Bristol has promised emergency funding to cover living expenses, travel, and visa costs for six Palestinian students set to begin master’s courses at the University this term.
At around 2 PM BST, the students, currently in Gaza, learned the University had found the funds necessary to support their maintenance costs.
Crucially, proof of funding for maintenance costs is required, under Home Office regulations, for international students to receive CAS (Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies) - allowing them to apply for student visas.
The six students are to study on the University’s Sanctuary Scholarship - intended to cover tuition fees and living expenses for students from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds.
Less than 24 hrs before the news broke, the hopeful postgraduates spoke to Epigram.
Lenny Osler
They voiced their concern and fear as the University seemed, at the time, unable to cover their living expenses - placing their visa and evacuation processes in deadlock.
Since the postgraduates are ineligible for UK Student Finance, and have no local financial resources in Gaza, they relied entirely on the University to cover all costs.
Just yesterday, the students’ futures appeared to hang in the balance.
However, in the past hours, the University’s emergency funding has appeared to enable them to leave Gaza to study in the UK.
Weam Abu Daqqa, one of the students accepted onto MSc International Relations at the University, had called yesterday for ‘emergency institutional support’ to restart their visa and evacuation processes before the new term begins.
Today, Weam said she was ‘over the moon’ that the University ‘won’t let us down’ by covering all relevant costs to secure their evacuation.
She also thanked ‘everyone who helped amplify our voices’, citing Carla Denyer, MP for Bristol Central, who had posted on X in support of the scholars.
Weam reportedly spent a year applying for scholarships ‘amid starvation, displacement and constant terror from bombardment’, often losing progress when power outages shut down her device.
‘Beyond the shelling, displacement, and total internet blackouts, the ultimate challenge was resisting the urge to give up.’
For Weam, education was a ‘form of survival and resilience’, and she hoped to use what she learns to ‘amplify the voice’ of the Palestinian people on a global scale.
Another student, Abdallah Alnajjar, said his lived experience motivated him to study MSc Public Health, having faced ‘repeated displacement, overcrowded conditions, disease, and shortages of food, water and electricity’.
Asma Ben Said, hoping to study MSc Mental Health Science, stressed her desire to use her degree to ‘address the psychological consequences of war’, having applied for scholarships while working to treat ‘severe injuries, displacement, and loss’.
‘As a medical doctor’, she said, ‘I have witnessed first-hand how conflict affects people’s psychological wellbeing - particularly children, women, healthcare workers, and displaced families.’
‘Behind every application’, said Asma, ‘there is a human being whose life may depend on that decision.’
Addressing current University of Bristol students, the postgraduates stressed the need to ‘never take education for granted’, while hoping to participate in student life, share their stories, and learn from others.
Nyx Osborne Sandford
A University of Bristol spokesperson said:
‘We are pleased to confirm that, having worked tirelessly, we have secured some one-off funding to support the living expenses for the six students from Gaza who have been awarded tuition fee waivers to study here.
‘We’re proud to be a University of Sanctuary, and we support the Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA) and remain committed to our wider Sanctuary Scholarship programme for refugees and asylum seekers based in the UK.
‘We look forward to welcoming the students to Bristol very soon.’
Bristol SU runs the Sanctuary Support Fund, which accepts donations that support University of Bristol Sanctuary scholars and other University of Bristol students ‘facing deportation or other hostile environments for their migration status.’
Featured image: Epigram / Lenny Osler
