Leaders at several of Britain’s top universities have warned Sir Keir Starmer that students from Gaza given scholarships will miss out on a place this year if they are not evacuated from the strip by the end of the week.
Palestinians with fully funded places to study at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Bristol, Exeter, Glasgow, Sussex and UCL, could lose their spots and remain stranded in the enclave if they are not called forward for evacuation on dual lists for Wednesday 22 October or Sunday 26 October.
In a letter shared with The Independent, the vice-chancellors, principals and presidents at the seven universities also criticise a ban on Palestinian students bringing dependents to the UK, saying ministers should use “powers of discretion” to allow them to settle.
Failure to do so will break up families and leave children in Gaza without a parent, they warn. It means Palestinian students face an “impossible choice” between taking up a life-changing place at a British university and leaving their families behind in a dangerous region.
Loay, 26, has a fully funded place to study for an MSc in health at the University of Oxford – but is being asked to leave his three-month-old daughter and wife behind in Gaza City.
The 25 students yet to be evacuated have places to study for undergraduate degrees, master’s and PhDs. While PhD students have been told they can begin their courses later than October, non-PhD students risk losing their place, as the next evacuation lists will not be released for another month. Only nine people in the group wish to bring dependents.
The statement commended the government’s recent evacuations of scholarship students and the UK’s role in attempts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, but asked for urgent updates on the “timeline for the evacuation of all remaining eligible students” in the next week.
It added: “We are increasingly concerned that some eligible students are yet to be called forwards for the evacuations next week, and a small number of students have been given the impossible choice to leave behind their children in order to take up their university places, including babies as young as three months old or children where there is no other parent alive.”
The statement said that unless students are on the dual list evacuation that is scheduled for this week, the non-PhD students will lose their place, and their extraordinary efforts to secure places and full funding will have been for nothing.
The group said that Unicef has offered to evacuate scholars and their families to the Kerem Shalom border crossing on 26 October if the Foreign Office give them the green light.
The call was backed by religious leaders in a separate letter signed by 35 rabbis and bishops, including the Bishop of Manchester and Rabbi Herschel Gluck OBE, who warned that “compassion cannot be blocked by bureaucracy”.
“The academic year started weeks ago, and we are at the tipping point of when universities can no longer hold places open. We are writing to urge you to ensure every parent scholar is offered a place on these evacuations – and that you use your discretionary powers to ensure they can bring their children too.”
It added: “To have granted these scholarships is to have offered a dream come true – to cause a student to forfeit their scholarship by not evacuating them in time, or requiring them to leave their children in Gaza, is to be responsible for a nightmare. Compassion cannot be blocked by bureaucracy.”
A government spokesperson told The Independent: “We are actively supporting students in Gaza. We have already facilitated the departure of a number of students and expect further students to arrive in the coming weeks.
“Bringing individuals out of Gaza is an extremely complex and delicate operation. We have worked intensely to support Chevening Scholars and students in Gaza who have fully funded scholarships at British universities to come to the UK and take up their places.»
The Independent has contacted Downing Street, the Home Office and the Foreign Office for comment.
