Who Oversees Fair Distribution of Scholarships?

 

The scholarship is not merely a funded university seat, but an opportunity that may change the future of a student and an entire family. Therefore, scholarship management is not only about receiving applications and allocating seats, but about an integrated system that should be based on prior planning, transparency, equal opportunity, accurate data, fairness in allocation, and follow-up until the student graduates! The clearer, announced, and documented the selection criteria are, the greater the institution’s ability to demonstrate the fairness of its decisions and to strengthen students’ trust in it!

Are we confident in the transparency of the distribution of scholarships offered to Palestinian students from foreign countries? And the scholarships inside the country—do the Palestinian embassies spread across the world conduct active efforts to obtain scholarships for Palestinian students at home and in the diaspora? Does the Ministry of Higher Education in Palestine represent the sole authority to supervise all procedures for distributing study scholarships and monitoring the scholars? Are we reassured that there are no exceptions in awarding some scholarships to students who do not meet the conditions and criteria for such scholarships abroad?

Many questions are raised in this field! .... In a sensitive file like scholarships, the State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB) in its general annual report for 2025 uncovered gaps in planning, transparency, follow-up, and scholarship management through a compliance audit it conducted of the General Administration of Scholarships and Student Services at the Ministry of Higher Education for the 2023/2024 academic year.!

However, the report points, on the other hand, to a number of positive practices, including the ministry’s efforts to facilitate application submission, increase receiving centers, or use electronic platforms, networking with donor countries, following up on the affairs of students studying abroad, supervising student service offices, and implementing procedures for granting scholarships to the children of martyrs in coordination with the competent authorities!

But these practices do not negate a set of substantive observations that touch the core of scholarship management, the most important of which are explained as follows:

First: Absence of an annual plan

One of the most prominent findings recorded by the Bureau is that the General Administration of Scholarships does not adhere to preparing and issuing an annual report that reflects its achievements, nor does it have a clear annual plan for recurring and periodic scholarships, nor specific mechanisms and tools to secure the required scholarships!

This observation acquires special importance because scholarship management should not be merely a response to opportunities that arrive from donor countries, but should be based on proactive planning, identifying needs and priorities, and attempting to direct scholarships toward the specializations and categories needed by Palestinian society.!

The report also pointed to the high proportion of scholarships allocated to students of the scientific stream compared to other streams, and to the low number of countries offering scholarships compared to the number of Palestinian embassies and missions abroad, which raises the question of the extent to which the full benefit is being drawn from the external relations network to obtain broader and more diversified educational opportunities!

Second: The electronic system needs rebuilding

The report reveals gaps in the electronic scholarship system, including its weak ability to support reports and data, the absence of academic streamlining indicators, usage controls, in addition to shortcomings in following up students!

More surprisingly, the report documented more than one file number for some applicants, repetition of some students’ names on the same scholarship, and the system accepting more than one high school score for the same applicant with different reference numbers, which allowed the possibility of applying for multiple scholarships at the same time!

Third: Announcement of scholarships and equal opportunity

One of the main issues the report addressed was the ministry’s failure to announce the specific required number for some scholarships during the 2023/2024 academic year, such as the scholarships from Tunisia, Mauritania, Poland, Algeria, China, Morocco and others.

The Bureau also recorded the existence of scholarships that were not utilized due to the short time between the ministry being notified of the scholarship and announcing it, which led to the loss of a number of study seats!

Here, the speed with which information reaches the student becomes part of justice itself. A scholarship that arrives late or is announced in a narrow time window may practically become an opportunity that not all students can access on equal footing!

The report also pointed to non-compliance with the specified ratios in distributing scholarships between students in Palestine and students in the diaspora, and to the ministry’s absence in following up scholarships implemented directly by donor countries!

Fourth: Follow-up does not end with obtaining the scholarship

Obtaining the scholarship is the beginning of the responsibility, not its end!.. But the Bureau recorded that the General Administration of Scholarships does not take the necessary measures to follow up the academic achievement of students who received external scholarships until their graduation, nor is there a regular system to document their academic information in coordination with embassies and relevant bodies!

Nor were periodic lists prepared of students expected to graduate, and there were no regular reports on scholarship beneficiaries submitted to the Missions Committee!

Most importantly, the report indicated that legal measures were not taken against a number of students who accepted external scholarships and then refused to join them, despite signing judicial guarantees and the existence of guarantors!

This raises a double issue: protecting public funds on the one hand, and ensuring fairness among students on the other; for a seat not used by its holder may deprive another student of a valuable educational opportunity!

Fifth: Student service offices need a clearer regulatory framework

The Bureau recorded weak adherence to the legal framework regulating the work of university service offices, the determination of fees due from them, and the absence of a needs assessment for the governorates when licensing these offices!

It also pointed to the weak supervisory role of the Student Services Department in ensuring that licensed offices comply with systems and instructions and in preparing field visit reports!

Sixth: Scholarships for children and wives of martyrs

The report did not overlook this socially sensitive file, noting the Martyrs and Wounded Families Care Institution’s failure to announce the scholarship annually to afford the opportunity to all who meet the conditions!

It also recorded the absence of an official procedural manual that clarifies the application steps, forms, guidance, and mechanisms for following up beneficiary students!

Seventh: PLO scholarships and the question of selection criteria

One of the most telling observations in the report was that the proportion of West Bank and Gaza Strip students benefiting from bachelor’s scholarships at Jordanian universities for the 2023/2024 academic year amounted to 11% only!, while the bulk of the study seats were transferred to the Higher Education Department in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)!

The Bureau also did not find an approved screening committee to consider applicants’ requests, nor session minutes, nor a procedural manual that clarifies the bases and criteria for selecting beneficiaries!

The policy of announcing these scholarships was likewise limited to the website, without alternative communication channels that ensure information reaches all Palestinian students inside and outside!

From oversight to reform

The Bureau’s report does not stop at recording observations, but offers a wide range of recommendations, foremost of which are developing the electronic system and database, clearly announcing the number of available seats, accelerating the delivery of scholarship information, enhancing coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and embassies, applying a unified ranking of applicants at the national level, and developing a comprehensive system to follow up students abroad!

It also recommended taking legal measures against those who renounce scholarships, activating judicial guarantees, regulating the work of university service offices, activating field visits, creating a database of beneficiaries of scholarships for children and wives of martyrs, enhancing coordination between the ministry and the Higher Education Department in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and preparing a clear procedural manual that defines roles, responsibilities and selection criteria!

It is important to note that the Ministry of Education and Higher Education responded to the report within the legal period, and its response was positive, stating that it will take the recommendations into account, and here we say that oversight reveals the flaw, while reform begins when recommendations turn into measures, measures into systems, and systems into ongoing institutional practice!