Edufragility in context of war crisis: Resilience and solidarity among the Palestinian universities

This paper examines how resilience and solidarity address edufragility in Palestinian higher education during war crises. Existing literature on higher education in conflict settings emphasizes disruption and loss, yet offers limited insight into how institutions sustain educational continuity under conditions of prolonged vulnerability short of total destruction. Building on this gap, the study investigates how Palestinian universities operate amid infrastructural damage, governance instability, resource scarcity, and psychological pressure. A qualitative research design is employed, combining a systematic review of empirical literature with participant observation of Gazan university students enrolled as visiting students at a West Bank university during the 2023–2024 academic year. Data were generated through virtual class observation, field notes, and students’ voluntary reflections collected under crisis conditions. The findings show that edufragility is manifested through funding shortages, human resource depletion, disrupted access to campuses, and digital precarity, which collectively threaten the continuity of education and learning. At the same time, institutional solidarity initiatives, adaptive governance practices, and improvised digital learning strategies enable limited but meaningful educational continuity. The paper demonstrates that resilience in Palestinian higher education emerges as an adaptive and relational process shaped by collective action rather than resistance alone. By conceptualizing edufragility as a condition of systemic vulnerability and examining how it is relieved through resilience and solidarity, this paper contributes to scholarship on crisis-affected higher education and offers implications for crisis-responsive governance, digital infrastructure planning, and psychosocial support in contexts of chronic conflict.