Remote higher education partnerships in crisis: reflections and practical insights from the Gaza education research virtual fellowship

This reflective commentary documents the development and early learnings of the Gaza Education Research Virtual Fellowship (GERVF), an initiative that aims to support Palestinian scholars and institutions in Gaza amidst scholasticide. In response to calls from Gaza’s academics for meaningful solidarity that recognises rather than bypasses their institutions, GERVF offers a low-resource and mutually beneficial remote partnership model. We outline how the Fellowship was developed, including the practical and strategic steps taken to prioritise institutional collaboration. We then provide an overview of the Fellowship’s structure and support provided to Fellows. Through shared reflections from UK-based researchers and Gaza Fellows, we cover the Fellowship’s content, early outcomes, lessons learned, and plans for sustainability and scale. We argue that GERVF offers an adaptable model of academic solidarity in Gaza. We invite scholars and institutions to contribute to and extend this approach in support of universities in Gaza, and other contexts affected by violence and systemic oppression.