"It's the best day of my life"

Nariman Salem Irheem, a 20-year-old student from Gaza (Palestine), sent a message months ago to the official WhatsApp account of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV). In it, as well as sending her CV, she requested guidance regarding her admission, given her exceptional humanitarian situation.

That message immediately set the UPV in motion, which embarked on an arduous process fraught with difficulties of all kinds, culminating in Nariman and her sister Roba arriving in Valencia with a clear objective: to continue their education as what they are, two ordinary girls aged 19 and 20.

Their journey over the last two days, passing through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, travelling through the West Bank to Amman – where they had a 32-hour permit to leave the country – and flying yesterday to Madrid, before travelling by road to Valencia —accompanied by the Vice-rector for Internationalisation and Communication at the UPV, José Francisco Monserrat, who had travelled with them from Jordan—is merely the conclusion of a story involving immense bureaucratic and emotional effort.

Not surprisingly, the operation has, throughout this time, enjoyed the support of three Spanish government ministries – Youth and Children; Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation; and Science, Innovation and Universities – the Spanish consulates in Jerusalem and Amman, and the Israeli embassy in Spain, which played a key role in unblocking a particularly difficult process.

Students invited by the UPV

"It's the best day of my life," said Nariman with a huge smile, despite having "slept for just four hours since Sunday night", as she walked through Gate 10 of Terminal 4 at Adolfo Suárez-Barajas Airport.

Both she and Roba have been invited as students by the UPV, with grants awarded by its Governing Council, and arrive with strong academic records. Nariman, in fact, graduated from Tawjihi in 2023 with an average mark of 9.91 and, despite the bombings and constant displacement, completed an academic year of the Bachelor's degree in Cybersecurity Engineering taught in English at the University of Applied Sciences

in Gaza. Now, both are preparing for their university entrance exam, which they will sit at the UNED – which has made the necessary changes to its timetable – before being able to enrol and continue their studies, if they achieve the required mark, at a UPV that welcomes them with open arms, conscious that education is the best path towards a peaceful, prosperous and, above all, humane society.