'Virtue signalling' nationalists challenged over Palestine students getting university scholarships while Northern Ireland's young people struggle to afford education

TUV MLA Timothy Gaston has also questioned the effort two senior nationalist politicians put in to get the students across, accusing Sinn Fein Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald and SDLP MP Colum Eastwood of ‘virtue signalling’ instead of helping people in the province.

Three students arrived from Gaza yesterday on what Mr Eastwood said were Salam Scholarships – a system set up in 2023 that pays for Palestinian students’ tuition fees and accommodation while they take a course at the Ulster University, gives them a monthly stipend to live on, and contributes towards their visa application and travel costs.

Both nationalist politicians sought to claim some credit for the arrival of Gazans in Northern Ireland, Mr Eastwood saying he’d spent months working to smooth their visa processes, while Ms Archibald stated she’d contacted Westminster to ensure another student yet to make the trip gets “prompt and safe passage”.

That has Mr Gaston questioning whether the money and time dedicated to Palestinian students would be better spent closer to home.

“It is difficult to reconcile the promotion of fully funded scholarships for a small number of overseas students while local students face the full burden of tuition fees, accommodation costs and living expenses,” he told the News Letter.

“Northern Ireland students work hard to secure their places at university yet must fund their own studies, often taking on significant debt.

“Meanwhile, the celebration of schemes such as the Salam Scholarships is difficult to view as anything other than virtue signalling – a high-profile gesture applauded for its appearance rather than its impact on the broader student community here, or indeed in Gaza.

“We must ask whether our educational funding priorities are truly fair, and whether the resources devoted to a handful of overseas scholarships could be better balanced to ensure that local students are not left carrying the cost.”

Three students arrived in Northern Ireland from Gaza, part of a cohort of more than 30 going to universities across the UK.

Said Ms Archibald: “We have a responsibility to do everything we can to support students arriving from Gaza , to be mindful of their wellbeing after what they have lived through over the last two years and ensure that they receive a very warm welcome.

“Last week I wrote to the British government Foreign and Home secretaries calling for urgent action to ensure a remaining student arrives safely at the earliest opportunity.

And Mr Eastwood said he worked to secure visas for three students on what he described as “prestigious Salam Scholarships”.

“Over the course of the last number of months we have been working with the students, the Home Office, Ulster University and others to secure visas and safe travel from Gaza to their places of study here,” he added.

"I am delighted they have now made it here.”