Al-Quds University, founded in 1984, is a Palestinian university, and the only university in the world to be situated by a separation wall. The main campus of the University is located in Abu Dis with four further campuses in Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah, Beit Hanina and Rammalh (al-Bireh). AQU provides higher education and community services within the Jerusalem area as well as the neighboring towns, villages and refugee camps in the West Bank.

With over 13,000 students, AQU is wide reaching with members from all over the West Bank, including from the districts of Bethlehem, Hebron, Jenin, Jericho, Nablus, Ramallah, Tulkarem, and Qalqilia. With fifteen academic faculties including Arts, Medicine, Dentistry, Law, Qur’an and Islamic Studies and Engineering, AQU has huge academic diversity and offers something for everyone.

AQU is a hub of creativity and offers a vibrant learning environment by encouraging an exchange of ideas and freedom of expression, as well as leading innovative research. This allows for the highest standard of education for our students, as well as encouraging them to be active engaged citizens, who are open and cooperative, as well as well informed and interested in world cultures.

In order to stay at the forefront of academia, AQU has international partnerships with American and European universities. It is also affiliated with over 30 institutes and engaged in innovative research around the world.

Our mission

The mission of Al Quds University is to equip students with the necessary tools to overcome overwhelming challenges and to shape a successful future. This is made possible through the promotion of academic research and professional excellence.

Principles and Values

Professionalism: Undertaking projects in a responsible manner and maintaining the standards of professionalism by enriching our skills in the fields of teaching, research and business.

Equality and Diversity: Promoting equal opportunities for all students and faculty by creating a platform for exchange of ideas, freedom of expression and knowledge sharing.

Access to Education: Here, in Al Quds University we firmly believe that education is a basic human right that should be exercised by all those who wish to pursue a higher education. Al Quds University is aiming to equip Palestinian youth with the best possible education and to promote student employability.

Promotion of Peace: The University is promoting democratic values, dialogue and peace by ‘giving voice’ to students and the international community to share their thoughts by participating in project work, summer courses and lectures.

Al-Quds University also aims at the development of a multi-cultural mindset to go with the current reality of the political and socio-economical situation in Jerusalem, since Jerusalem’s unique constitution as a mosaic cross-road of different nations, cultures and religions, giving special emphasis on introducing students especially, but the University community as a whole, to the multi-cultured heritage of human civilization. This is achieved in a number of ways, whether through special courses in human civilizations or human rights, international cooperation, joint educational projects involving faculty and students, lectures and events, foreign scholarships and exchanges. The student is thus encouraged to develop a worldly outlook, an appreciation of and tolerance for the other, and a humanist moral code.

Mission Statement

Bethlehem University is a Catholic co-educational institution in the Lasallian tradition whose mission is to provide quality higher education to the people of Palestine and to serve them in its role as a center for the advancement, sharing and use of knowledge.

The University emphasizes excellence in academic programs and the development of students as committed people prepared to assume leading positions in society. The University fosters shared values, moral principles, and dedication to serving the common good.

After nearly a century, what began as a small girls’ school in Birzeit town has become the most prestigious Palestinian university, transforming Palestinian higher education through its impact on community awareness, culture and resistance. Birzeit University has been a thorn in the side of the occupation, insisting on playing its role of enlightenment and creating a multicultural Palestinian society on the campus grounds. There, students and staff are able to dialogue and communicate, rejecting the occupation’s attempts to chaperone thought and culture.

In the 1970s, and despite the occupation, Birzeit became a university, blending Palestinian values and Arab culture with an openness to world cultures.

Birzeit University offered a great opportunity for all segments of Palestinian society to access higher education, in particular rural Palestinians and girls. The university campus has become a unique microcosm of Palestine, representing all layers of society: rural and urban, rich and poor, male and female, conservative and liberal. These different groups have been able to gather together in and atmosphere of freedom and respect for the opinion of the other. This marks Birzeit University’s uniqueness and originality.