On September 16, 2026, the TOBB ETÜ Public Auditing (Ombudsman) Society organized an event in Ankara titled “Science Café for Gaza: Being a University in Gaza” as part of September 1 World Peace Day. Prof. Dr. Türkay Dereli and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ali Oğuz Diriöz spoke at the event, while Jalal Selmi, a Palestinian from Gaza who graduated from the TOBB ETÜ Department of International Relations in 2015, joined the discussion online.
According to UNESCO, there are approximately 88 thousand university students in Gaza. An assessment completed at the end of 2025 found that approximately 95% of higher education campuses had been damaged or destroyed. The Gaza Virtual Campus aims to reach 20 thousand students in its initial phase and approximately 88 thousand over time. Efforts are underway to provide education to more than 13 thousand students across five temporary learning spaces.
Selmi stated that online education cannot be a permanent alternative to campus life. He emphasized that reconstruction in Gaza, where the World Health Organization has highlighted the severe weakening of the healthcare system, must also encompass education and human capital, and that scholarships, sustainable academic support and joint research projects need to be expanded.
Why it matters
In an environment where nearly all campuses have been damaged, the issue goes beyond the disruption of classes to whether Gaza can preserve its skilled human capital. The gap between the virtual campus’s initial target of 20 thousand people and the total need of approximately 88 thousand students makes the reach and continuity of temporary solutions a fundamental concern. Although reaching more than 13 thousand students across five learning spaces helps sustain education, the online model is no substitute for the campus experience and academic research environment. With the healthcare system also severely weakened, the main unresolved question is how reconstruction will allocate resources not only to buildings but also to scholarships, regular academic support and joint research.
Background
Gaza is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: over the past 90 days, we published 6 news articles mentioning it, the latest dated September 13, 2026.