In September 2025, I’m supposed to start out a brand new life, not in war-torn Gaza, however in a lecture corridor in the UK. After practically a yr of infinite efforts, purposes, exams, and navigating bombings, displacement and blackout zones simply to use, I used to be accepted. Not as soon as, however 5 instances, by the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Exeter, and Ulster. I even secured funding.
However as an alternative of boarding a airplane, I stay trapped in Gaza, a spot the place struggle has flattened properties, stolen futures and caged desires. The bombs haven’t stopped. Neither has our will. Not like college students in different war-torn areas, we, Gaza Palestinian college students, should not being supplied any path out. Many nations, resembling France, Eire and Italy, have efficiently evacuated their college students via government-coordinated efforts and humanitarian corridors, like by way of the Worldwide Committee of the Purple Cross (ICRC). These governments made it clear that their college students matter. The UK has not. Regardless of its international standing and historic status for championing justice and training, it stays silent.
This isn’t simply my story. It’s a collective cry from dozens of us, admitted to prime British universities, with scholarships or private financial savings, who survived bombs and sieges solely to be deserted on the last border: there isn’t a visa centre in Gaza to submit fingerprints, and no route out with out evacuation.
After the struggle broke out in late 2023, I used to be pressured to pause my on-line college research, as each the lessons and the charges grew to become unimaginable to keep up underneath the siege. However I didn’t surrender on training. As a substitute, I started making use of to UK universities via UCAS, a course of that demanded a rigorously written private assertion, suggestion letters, detailed documentation and weeks of ready. I submitted every thing utilizing borrowed web in family members’ properties or from paid co-working areas that I reached on foot, underneath the noon solar or pouring rain, with no transportation. There have been days once I sat on a plastic chair on the street, emailing schools and researching entry necessities whereas missiles flew overhead.
When universities requested for English qualification submissions, I had no centre in Gaza to assist me, not for coaching, not even to register. Most UK universities wouldn’t settle for Duolingo, the one take a look at I might afford and entry on-line. So I stretched each useful resource and utilized for every establishment’s accredited take a look at, juggling freelance cell programming by day to assist myself and learning English by evening, usually underneath a cell flashlight.
Some checks required fixed digicam and microphone monitoring, troublesome in a struggle zone the place displacement, noise and unstable web made focus practically unimaginable. One infraction and the take a look at can be void. My laptop computer battery usually died earlier than the take a look at ended. However I endured and succeeded.
My household shares this starvation for training. My brother is a mechanical engineer who received the aggressive Qaddumi scholarship final yr to start a grasp’s programme on the College of Liverpool in January 2025, nevertheless it has been deferred. My sister was accepted right into a Turkish government-funded medical programme at Samsun College, which was additionally postponed due to the struggle. Three of us, all with desires and drive, are caught in Gaza. We did every thing proper. So why are we left behind?
After a lot wrestle, I lastly handed the checks and transformed my conditional provides into unconditional ones. I even secured funding, sufficient for at the least the primary yr’s tuition charges and residing bills. I used to be additionally promised assist from personal foundations, conditional solely on submitting my visa utility.
However once I tried to use for a visa, I hit a lifeless finish: biometric fingerprints. The UK has no visa centre in Gaza. To finish the method, I would want to cross a border that’s shut except I’m listed for evacuation. There are greater than 100 Gazan college students accepted to UK universities, 48 with full scholarships, who face the identical impasse. Many, like me, are operating out of time. Contained in the UK, establishments just like the Gaza Scholarship Initiative (GSI) have stepped in to amplify our voice to the federal government as a result of they imagine in us.
Some have carried their provides from 2024, after universities generously deferred their admission. Most universities, nevertheless, won’t provide such flexibility once more. For all of us, 2025 is our final likelihood.
Different nations acted.
Eire coordinated immediately with Israel to evacuate its college students by way of the Karem Abu Salem (recognized to Israelis as Kerem Shalom) crossing. France and Italy did the identical. College students have been transported to close by nations to complete visa processing and start their research. They understood the stakes, not simply educational, however human. These governments coordinated with humanitarian companies to get their college students out, then facilitated visas and asylum claims.
The UK has achieved nothing comparable, regardless of quite a few appeals from college students, universities, advocacy teams like GSI, and members of parliament. We now have written letters to MPs, college heads and the British Council. Even college leaders who assist our admission can’t assist except the UK authorities steps in.
This silence hurts most as a result of it’s not attributable to incapability. The UK can act nevertheless it merely chooses to not. If the federal government coordinated with Israeli authorities and humanitarian teams just like the ICRC, college students might be evacuated via Kerem Shalom into Egypt or Jordan, the place they may finalise visas and journey.
This isn’t speculative. It’s precisely what different democratic nations have achieved. The distinction? They cared sufficient to attempt.
What does this say about whose futures matter?
The UK has invested for many years in worldwide training, providing prestigious scholarships like Chevening and the Commonwealth. It champions studying and alternative and leads numerous worldwide partnerships. However in the case of Gaza college students, who embody that very ethos, we’re being forgotten. What message does that ship? Does our survival, our future, matter much less? Are we invisible to the very system that welcomed us in writing?
I nonetheless imagine in British training. I’m impressed by its professors, challenged by its rigour, and drawn to its range and values. I fought for my place there. I hope, not only for me however for my friends, that the UK authorities remembers its legacy and chooses to behave.
As a result of if not now, when?
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.