100 Gaza students to pursue education in Qatar: EAA

A total of 100 students from Palestine will reach Qatar within six months to continue and complete their higher education in various universities in the country, an official from Education Above All ( EAA) Foundation told Gulf Times Wednesday.
“After the launch of the ‘Rebuilding Hope for Gaza initiative’, we started to bring students from Gaza to Qatar," explained Talal Alhathal, executive director, Al-Fakhoora programme, EAA.
He was speaking on the sidelines of a welcome ceremony for the first batch of students from Palestine who were admitted in the University of Science and Technology (UDST). These students had to leave Palestine due to the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
“We are providing them hope to continue and complete their degrees from where they have stopped. We have already got eight students to UDST and are in the process of application review to bring the remaining students to study here in the universities in Qatar. Some of them will be admitted in UDST while others will be in other universities depending on the availability and the field of interest of the students,” explained, Alhathal.
The official noted that the first batch of students has started their academic journey with UDST and others will follow soon. “We have processed (the papers) to bring 20 more in the coming days. The remaining will be processed once all the documentation and other formalities are completed. We are preparing the logistics for them to come here,” he continued.
According to Alhathal, currently EAA is focusing more on the national universities to admit the students from Gaza. He said: “We focus on UDST and Qatar University to admit most of the students. Medical students will be admitted at Qatar University while engineering, IT and other technical programme students will be given admission in UDST. We are also in discussion with Qatar Foundation universities (to know) if some of the students can be admitted.”
The Al-Fakhoora director highlighted that the programme aims to provide several support services also to the students.
“We are providing psycho-social support, trauma support, facilitate education at some of the undamaged facilities in Gaza besides the opportunity for the students to study in universities as well as in schools outside Palestine. We are focusing on well qualified students based on their academic strength, GPA and merit . We hope that with our support, these students will be able to complete their education and rebuild Gaza and Palestine for better,” added, Althathal.