Students launch 'Gaza40' campaign for Palestinian scholarship recipients who cannot enter UK

Middle East Eye

3 days ago

A coalition of student groups has launched the 'Gaza40 Campaign', an initiative aimed at pressuring the UK government to waive bureaucratic requirements that make it impossible for Palestinian students from Gaza to take their place at British academic institutions.
Led by students in the UK and Palestine, the campaign advocates for over 40 students from Gaza who have been offered full scholarships to study at 24 UK universities but are unable to obtain visas due to a biometric data requirement that they are unable to provide.
Israel's ongoing destruction in Gaza makes it near impossible for Palestinians to access consular services for foreign nations.
The Gaza Visa Application Centre (VAC) has been closed since the start of Israel's war on Gaza in 2023, meaning that students are unable to submit the necessary biometric services.
The campaign's open letter calling on the government to make an exception for the affected students has over 1,400 student signatures across 111 universities as of Thursday morning.
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Gaza40 campaigners demand the deferral of biometric data requirements and safe passage for Palestinian students to reach the UK.
Similar waivers to the one being demanded have previously been issued by the UK for Ukrainian and Afghan students.
'The refusal to extend similar accommodations to Palestinian students in Gaza, where the risk to life is equal if not more severe, amounts to discriminatory treatment,' the letter says.
Dreams on hold
Baraah, a Palestinian doctor in Gaza who only gave her first name, was awarded the Chevening Scholarship to study Women and Children's Health at King's College London.
She told MEE: 'This scholarship was my dream – a light in the middle of years of war, fear and exhaustion.'
At least for now, the dream is on hold. 'I have spent years serving my people in Gaza through war and pandemics," she said.
"All I want now is a chance, a chance to study, to grow, and to return stronger to help rebuild what war has broken.'
'All I want now is a chance to study … and to return stronger to help rebuild what war has broken'
- Baraah, Palestinian doctor
Manar, a two-time PhD scholarship awardee who also preferred to speak to MEE under her first name, said that her home in Rafah was completely destroyed by Israeli forces in May 2024.
Since then, she has been displaced 14 times and has lost at least 22 family members.
In May this year, she was awarded the prestigious Cara fellowship to pursue her PhD at the University of Glasgow.
'Every attempt to pursue this dream has been blocked by war, displacement, and border closures,' she explained.
Gaza40 organisers told MEE that the initiative, which was officially launched this week, began with advocacy efforts for individual students at various UK universities, and has developed into a national campaign driven by British students and the Palestinian students affected by the UK's visa policies.
Through a network of Palestine solidarity societies, Islamic societies, human rights groups and other student groups, the campaign aims to amplify the stories of affected students and build awareness to pressure UK lawmakers.
Sanaa, another student from Gaza, told MEE that she was admitted to an Education Master's programme at the University of Durham. She had to complete her application under gruelling conditions:
'To apply for this scholarship I wrote my essays by hand often under the light of my phone's flashlight. I took my English language test under the sound of shelling.
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'I am not asking for charity,' she added. 'There is no way for me to leave Gaza or complete my visa procedures without international diplomatic coordination and humanitarian access.'
Over 16,000 students have been killed by Israeli forces since the start of Israel's war on Gaza, as of June 2025.
Israeli strikes have damaged at least 20 higher education institutions in Gaza.
"This campaign is not just about visas. It's about dignity,' Baraah told MEE.
Leen, one of the 40 Palestinian students affected, said that she and other students were not asking for favours, but 'a functional, safe and urgent solution'.
'I hope this campaign reminds the world that Gaza's youth are still here, still dreaming and still fighting to learn, and that we will not be erased,' she added.