The UK-based group Architects for Gaza, appealing to the educational needs of displaced Palestinian architecture students in the occupied territory, has just announced the creation of a new learning platform called Gaza Global University. 

The announcement was made earlier this month via Instagram. The group says: "We know that to rebuild Gaza requires rebuilding its institutions, its culture, its life — and importantly for those of us not situated in Gaza — it requires a rebuilding of all our worlds. We see Gaza Global University as a radical pedagogical project rooted in hope and shared humanity."

According to the group's website, the objectives for developing the initiative include:

• Establishing links with academic institutions internationally to offer online tutorials and lectures free of charge Gazan students in any part of the world, who are students of architecture, and related courses, such as design and urbanism. 
• Offering technological assistance for remote communication at this time of conflict and scarcity of resources, to enable Gazan students of architecture (and related design and urbanism) in any part of the world to continue their education virtually, free of charge.
• Developing new, or opening access to existing, online, credit-bearing short courses, long courses and discrete modules in partnership with local and international institutions, to enable Gazan students of architecture (and related design and urbanism) in any part of the world to continue their education virtually, free of charge.
• Developing collaborations to allow Gaza Global University to support that is accredited or validated by local and international institutions, to enable Gazan students of architecture (and related design and urbanism) in any part of the world to continue their education.

The initiative will later spread to include affected students living in the West Bank. The first GGU learning activities will concentrate on clusters of students whose study has been uprooted by the State of Israel's incursion into Gaza, which has since October gradually wiped out all of the institutions of higher learning in what is presently the highest-density urban area on the planet and home to roughly 90,000 students. (H/t The Intercept & The Conversation.)

Yara Sharif, one of the co-founders of Architects for Gaza was profiled recently by NPR. The group is also actively looking for further strategic and institutional support for course development and other aspects of the program. 

"We are currently unable to guarantee accredited learning and certification, and services may be necessarily provided on an ad-hoc basis. We would aim to be truthful in the expectations we set, while remaining high in our ambitions," organizers noted further. 

You can register your interest in participating in Gaza Global University here.