Thirteen scholarships have been offered to students in Gaza seeking to continue their education at Trinity, according to a spokesperson from College administration.
Since January 2024, Trinity has been working in collaboration with youth-led non-profit project We Are Not Numbers (WANN) to facilitate access to Trinity for students in Gaza.
The program has since been expanded, and the funding towards it has doubled, as part of the encampment agreement reached in May between students and College management.
Last May, Trinity College Dublin Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Group (TCD BDS) led a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” between the Book of Kells and the Arts Block on campus that lasted five days. The group’s professed goals were to sever all ties with Israeli institutions, and provide reparations to Palestine in the form of a number of scholarships allocated for students in Gaza.
Fees for these students have been waived, and accommodation will be provided for Palestinian students through Trinity’s Sanctuary Fund, which was set up in 2022 to help refugees in light of the war in Ukraine.
However, the conditions under which these students are expected to leave Gaza to accept the scholarships are unclear. A number of prospective students receiving scholarships from College that have made it to Egypt will be able to travel to Dublin, but for those remaining in Palestine, obstacles such as the sealed border between Gaza and Egypt and the expense of fleeing could complicate the process.
When asked whether Trinity had a procedure in place to help students unable to leave the Gaza Strip, a College spokesperson replied “We are monitoring the situation and will continue to work with the students and key stakeholders”. College declined to offer comment on the cases of individual students from Gaza due to privacy reasons.
