RefugEAP Network

Pal-EAP Scheme

This section outlines the Pal-EAP Scheme, which is a way in which we are supporting students from Gaza to meet the English language conditions of their UK university offers, as a means of offering solidarity and practical support during the ongoing genocide

Quick links

For Students from Gaza

Use our Pal-EAP Flowchart to find a suitable path for you

Template email to UK universities asking for flexibility

Request a free Pal-EAP online English language test code

For UK Universities

Flexibility Guidelines for UKVI Highly Trusted Sponsor HEIs

Pal-EAP Pre-Sessional Guidance Notes for UK Universities

The Pal-EAP Scheme: Information for Universities and Potential Students

What is the Pal-EAP Scheme?

The RefugEAP Network has been running the Pal-EAP Scheme since the summer of 2024, to support UK university offer-holders from Gaza to meet the English language conditions of their offers, to enable them to take up their places on their degree programmes. To date, dozens of students have been supported through the scheme, some of whom have subsequently been able to evacuate from Gaza and begin their studies in the UK or Ireland. One such student is Ibrahim Aldalis, who wrote a testimonial about his experiences.

Pal-EAP takes a multi-pronged approach to supporting students from Gaza to meet the English language conditions of their UK university offers. The main tenets are as follows:

advocating for UK universities to exercise more flexibility in the type of English language evidence they will accept, in line with their status as UKVI Highly Trusted Sponsors. To this end, we have worked with the Gaza Scholarship Initiative to create a document entitled Pal-EAP-GSI Guidelines for Universities: Flexibility in evidencing English language level for Palestinian applicants to UK, which has been disseminated widely among UK universities and has resulted in flexibility being exercised in a number of cases
offering free English language test codes to students from Gaza for the Duolingo English Test and the Oxford English Language Level Test, which are two of the main tests which are still currently accessible from Gaza, under favourable conditions (students can request a code via this form)
working with UK universities to offer free places to Palestinian students on online pre-sessional academic English programmes in the summer of 2026, as part of the wider EAP for Students in Crisis initiative (in partnership with Mosaik Education). Universities can express interest in this scheme via this form

Information for Students from Gaza

The Pal-EAP Scheme aims to find ways to support students from Gaza who hold offers from UK universities to meet the English language conditions of their offers. We understand how challenging it can be to meet this language requirement, and know that this can be a key barrier to continuing your studies.

As a first step, we encourage you to complete our Pal-EAP Student Flowchart to determine the most suitable option for your circumstances at the moment.

Whatever your situation, if you are looking to study at a UK university, it will be useful for you to familiarise yourself with this document: Pal-EAP-GSI Guidelines for Universities: Flexibility in evidencing English language level for Palestinian applicants to UK universities from Gaza (April 2026). This will give you a good overview of the different options available, and is a useful tool to use when advocating for your potential future UK university to be more flexible (along with this template email).

Pal-EAP can also offer free Duolingo and Oxford English Language Level Test codes for students who need them (via this form), although we understand the challenges that taking such texts in the current Gaza context can pose, and that this option may not work for every student.

Another option is to study on an online pre-sessional programme. You can find out more about this option in this booklet: Pal-EAP Pre-sessional Scheme: Information for Students (Summer 2026). As noted in the booklet, this year students can access this scheme only by referral by the Gaza Scholarship Initiative.

Information for UK Universities

Since Summer 2024, we at Pal-EAP have witnessed the pivotal role that UK universities can play in enabling students from Gaza to meet the English language conditions of their degree programme offers, breaking down structural barriers to enable equitable access to students based in an extremely challenging humanitarian context.

We encourage all universities to start by reading the following document: Pal-EAP-GSI Guidelines for Universities: Flexibility in evidencing English language level for Palestinian applicants to UK universities from Gaza (April 2026). This gives a sound overview of the Gaza context, current barriers to evidencing English language proficiency, and the full range of evidence types which might be considered within the UKVI guidelines. It advocates for universities to be open to exercising more flexibility (within the UKVI guidelines) for students in contexts such as Gaza.

We also ask universities which run online pre-sessional (academic English) programmes to consider offering one of more free places to students based in Gaza this summer (2026). Pal-EAP has placed students from Gaza successfully on pre-sessionals in 2024 and 2025 (please see ‘Learning and Insights’ section below for examples of this). To find out more about what participating in this scheme involves, please refer to the following document: Pal-EAP Pre-sessional Scheme: Guidelines for Universities (Summer 2026). This year, Pal-EAP is partnering with Mosaik Education to co-ordinate pre-sessional offers from UK universities via the joint EAP for Students in Crisis appeal. Pre-sessional places can be pledged for Pal-EAP and/or students from other conflict zones via this online form.

Useful resources for universities participating in the pre-sessional scheme are:

Trauma Informed ESOL for Refugees – this is a free, online self-access training module for English language teachers working with refugee background students who may have experienced trauma. In the ‘Self-Access Training’ section of this page, you can access 4 short video-presentations lasting around one hour in total, plus optional accompanying materials/tasks
Guidelines for Educators in Crisis Settings – these guidelines for teachers and course leaders have been developed by Prof. Saida Affouneh, an Emergency Education and E-learning specialist at An-Najah National University, Palestine

For universities looking to become a University of Sanctuary or sign up to the UNHCR’s 15by30 pledge, this scheme will stand them in good stead. Universities offering pre-sessional places via Pal-EAP or the wider EAP for Students in Crisis scheme can also sign up to the RefugEAP Network’s joint pledge (submitted at the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva in December 2023) via this form.