Palestine, the Faculty 18 of the University of Barcelona
PRESS RELEASE
- The University of Barcelona begins the 2025-2026 academic year with a pioneering initiative to strengthen cooperation and commitment to the Palestinian people.
The University of Barcelona begins the 2025-2026 academic year announcing the creation of Faculty 18. This is an unprecedented initiative in the university sphere, inspired by Barcelona City Council’s District 11 project, and is being promoted in coordination with the municipal government. Faculty 18 will serve as an institutional and academic platform to raise awareness about the Palestinian people, as well as a permanent link with the Palestinian university system, starting with the three public universities in the Gaza Strip. It will also act as an institutional umbrella for all the actions already being carried out, such as the UB Refugi programme, the BASE project and others within the framework of the Mediterranean Universities Union (UNIMED).
The University of Barcelona begins the 2025-2026 academic year announcing the creation of Faculty 18. This is an unprecedented initiative in the university sphere, inspired by Barcelona City Council’s District 11 project, and is being promoted in coordination with the municipal government. Faculty 18 will serve as an institutional and academic platform to raise awareness about the Palestinian people, as well as a permanent link with the Palestinian university system, starting with the three public universities in the Gaza Strip. It will also act as an institutional umbrella for all the actions already being carried out, such as the UB Refugi programme, the BASE project and others within the framework of the Mediterranean Universities Union (UNIMED).
The rector of the University of Barcelona, Joan Guàrdia, explains that the Faculty’s initiative is in line with the pioneering spirit that moved the UB in response to the Balkan war and in support of Sarajevo in the 1990s: “The situation of the Palestinian people moves us and challenges us, and now that we are starting a new academic year, we find ourselves faced with the obligation to continue looking at the reality of the Palestinian people and, consequently, to offer an even more strong response. No one should have to suffer war crimes or situations of apartheid and occupation, let alone genocidal actions.”
First measures
The University of Barcelona has launched a website that will bring together all the actions of the Faculty 18, accompanied by a local and international dissemination and awareness-raising campaign.
Among the first measures are:
- A fundraising campaign to finance projects aimed at rebuilding the university system in the Gaza Strip, in collaboration with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and other UN agencies or humanitarian organizations.
- The awarding of an honorary doctorate to an international figure who has been relevant in the fight against genocide and in favour of a just and lasting peace.
In addition, the UB will implement initiatives that respond to both the current situation and the future reconstruction of the university system in the Gaza Strip, and will continue to organize academic activities for debate and dissemination, such as those that have been carried out since 2023, to raise visibility to the conflict and offer elements of analysis of the situation.
The UB’s commitment to the situation in Gaza
Faculty 18 was created in line with the reactivation of Barcelona City Council’s District 11 and maintaining the UB’s tradition of commitment to peace, democracy and human rights, which was clearly demonstrated in the 1990s with its support for Sarajevo.
Since the attacks perpetrated by Hamas in October 2023 and the worsening of the conflict, the UB has acted in coherence with these values and has promoted a series of actions and manifestos, both in 2024 and 2025, with the aim of denouncing the situation of the Palestinian people, as well as to contribute from the academic world to building a just and lasting peace.
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