HYBRID LAUNCH EVENT: Guide led by Friends of Birzeit University (FOBZU) to build higher education partnerships between Britain & Palestine
Tuesday 25 February 14:00-15:30 GMT
This is a HYBRID EVENT: Join the event in person (Senate House) or by Zoom.
This event is run in collaboration with Friends of Birzeit University (FOBZU), the Centre for Comparative and International Research in Education and the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre.
After over a year of Israel’s military campaign, Gaza’s Universities have continued to operate even as their campuses and infrastructure have been destroyed. To coordinate much needed support for their continued functioning, Gaza’s public universities have come together to form an Emergency Committee of Universities. UK universities, with their robust academic networks and resources, are well positioned to provide meaningful support through collaborative initiatives. These partnerships not only offer tangible benefits to Palestinian institutions at a time of critical need and reflect a long-established practice of international collaboration but also enrich the UK academic community by sharing our research and fostering cross cultural exchange. Many such partnerships already exist, and have successfully fostered collaborations between Palestinian and British institutions. They also offer useful models for future initiatives that support Gaza’s universities as they seek to re-establish themselves, sustain their teaching, and continue in their role as public institutions of significance.
This event launches a guide led by Friends of Birzeit University (FOBZU), a UK-based charity that builds partnerships between British and Palestinian institutions of higher education. The guide lays out the context for international collaboration with Palestinian institutions and the wider context of international twinning as a means to build academic partnerships. It also provides examples of previous collaborations between British and Palestinian institutions and offers models to build future collaborations.
The event will include representatives of the Emergency Committee of the Universities of Gaza and UK-based faculty who have existing partnerships and research collaborations with Palestinian Universities. The event will be chaired by Omar Shweiki, FOBZU’s director, and the guide will be presented by Dr Basma Hajir.