The University of Warsaw – Poland’s top higher education institution – has offered scholarships to 26 Palestinian students as “an expression of our solidarity and our contribution to building a better future” amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
The admissions are contingent on the students passing security checks that are currently being conducted by the relevant authorities.
“Bearing in mind the situation in the Middle East, and in particular the impact of hostilities on the lives of civilians, the university wishes to make it possible for students from Palestine who wish to continue their education to pursue their studies,” wrote the university.
The admissions have been offered to 26 students selected by the Palestinian embassy in Warsaw. The university is also coordinating the recruitment process with Poland’s foreign ministry and Internal Security Agency (ABW).
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“We have room for everyone, but whether they pass the security procedures will determine how many of them actually take up their studies,” the university’s spokeswoman, Anna Modzelewska, told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
“We believe that allowing students from Palestine to continue their studies at the University of Warsaw is an expression of our solidarity and a contribution to building a better future, based on education and mutual respect,” said the university’s rector, Alojzy Nowak.
“The actions we take will contribute to the creation of a space where those affected by the effects of war can grow, gain knowledge and contribute to a future based on peace and understanding,” he added. His university was rated as Poland’s best in the latest annual ranking of higher education institutions.
Israeli military action in response to Hamas’s attack of 7 October 2023 has resulted in an estimated 40,000 deaths and the displacement of over 1.7 million people in Gaza.
Police have removed pro-Palestinian protesters who had begun to occupy part of the University of Warsaw.
They were called in by the rector because the protesters were blocking access to the university https://t.co/srIEOpemHA
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) June 12, 2024
Like many universities around the world, the University of Warsaw has seen student protests in support of Palestine and calling for the institution to cut ties with Israel. That led the rector earlier this year to call in police to remove protesters who were occupying part of the university’s main campus.
Similar protests have taken place at Poland’s other top-ranked university, the Jagiellonian in Kraków. In May, its rector received a letter signed by over 2,800 people calling on the university to immediately terminate cooperation with Israeli institutions.
A counter-letter, signed by 500 people, including the chief rabbi of Poland, defended Israel’s actions as “a legitimate response to Hamas’s criminal attack” and called for a “debate, not a boycott” of Israel.
Letters signed by thousands of people have called on Poland's leading universities to end cooperation with Israeli institutions.
In response, hundreds of other students, academics and Jewish leaders have signed a counter-letter opposing such a boycott https://t.co/b4VlOICgFK
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) May 17, 2024
Main image credit: Robert Kowalewski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl
Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in Polish and European politics as well as investigative journalism and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.
