Iran ceasefire brings hope after university attacks ‘normalised’

Staff and students at universities across the Middle East are hoping that a temporary ceasefire in the Iran war leads to more stability within the region after fears that attacks on institutions were becoming “normalised” in the latest round of fighting.

Israel, the US and Iran have agreed a two-week pause in the conflict after tensions escalated over the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, leading to a spike in oil prices worldwide.

Experts say the pause represents a fragile peace but it marks a brief respite for various countries’ education systems, which have increasingly been targeted amid the fighting.

Last month Iran announced that it saw American university campuses in the Middle East as “legitimate targets”, after claiming that US and Israeli strikes had hit several of its universities.

According to Al Jazeera, 30 universities in Iran have been damaged by US-Israeli strikes since the war began, with the country’s top institution, Sharif University of Technology, struck on 6 April.

Ongoing Israeli strikes in Lebanon – which Israel has said is not included in the ceasefire – have also seen academics killed and universities hit, and follows the destruction in Gaza, where Israel has been accused of conducting an “educide”.

The targeting of universities in conflict is “strategic”, according to Maia Chankseliani, professor of comparative and international education at the University of Oxford, who added that the consequences would be long-term, and result in the “degradation of a society’s capacity to educate and produce knowledge”.

“What we are witnessing, from the widespread destruction of higher education in Gaza to the bombing of Sharif University of Technology, one of the most distinguished scientific institutions in the region, suggests a deeply troubling pattern.

“Perhaps most alarming is the rhetorical shift we are now seeing, with universities being seen as legitimate targets in war. This signals a potential normalisation of their inclusion within the strategic logic of conflict.”

She said the global higher education community must respond “clearly and collectively, reaffirming the protected status of universities and supporting their recovery”.

Vincenzo Raimo, an international higher education consultant, said the situation in the Middle East was “distressing”, and it was “profoundly troubling” that universities were being “drawn directly into conflict”.

“Universities have long played a unique role in societies: they bring together people, ideas and research, often across national and political divides. When they’re damaged or targeted, the impact goes far beyond buildings. It disrupts education, undermines research and breaks international networks that can take decades to build.”

Recovery is likely to be slow despite the ceasefire, he said, because infrastructure is only “one part of the challenge”, and “restoring academic communities, international partnerships and student confidence takes many years”.

“At a time when global challenges demand cooperation across borders, the idea that universities are no longer safe or neutral spaces is something we should all be deeply alarmed by.”

Mayssoun Sukarieh, senior lecturer in the department of international development at King’s College London, said universities being damaged in conflict was not new, pointing to the 2003 Iraq war, in which roughly 80 per cent of the country’s institutions were “severely damaged, looted, or destroyed”.

This was, however, “regarded as collateral damage, and there was no claim of intentional targeting”, she said.

In the latest conflict, the Israeli and US governments have attempted to justify such attacks by claiming that the universities “are connected to military research”.

This showed there were “no rules” in the current conflict, she said, and it set a precedent.

“According to this logic, all American universities as well as Israeli universities are legitimate targets of destruction, as they are all involved in military research.”

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com