Research & Investigations
Ten universities anchor Palestinian higher education, and here is what they cost
Graphic: Times of Palestine
Original Reporting
The Newsdesk gathers reporting from wire services and primary sources and rewrites every story in-house before publication. How our journalism is made →
Ten institutions carry most of Palestinian higher education between the West Bank and Gaza. They teach the doctors, engineers, teachers and journalists of a country under occupation, and families plan years of saving around their fee tables.
This guide names the ten, what each is known for, and what a degree actually costs. Every figure below comes from the universities' published fee schedules and admissions pages; rates change year to year, so treat them as a planning map and confirm the current numbers with each admissions office before enrolling.
The ten that lead#
International rankings agree on the front of the field even where they disagree on the order. An-Najah National University in Nablus placed first in Palestine in the QS World University Rankings 2026 and leads the Webometrics table, while Birzeit University near Ramallah holds the top national spot in several other indexes and the strongest name recognition abroad.
| University | City | Founded | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Birzeit University | Birzeit, Ramallah | 1975* | Law, engineering, the flagship liberal-arts tradition |
| An-Najah National | Nablus | 1977* | Medicine, the largest student body, research output |
| Al-Quds University | Jerusalem / Abu Dis | 1984 | Medicine and health sciences at the Jerusalem doorstep |
| Arab American University | Jenin (and Ramallah) | 2000 | Palestine's first private university; health professions |
| Bethlehem University | Bethlehem | 1973 | Nursing, hotel management; the Vatican-linked campus |
| Hebron University | Hebron | 1971 | Agriculture, sharia and humanities in the south |
| Palestine Polytechnic | Hebron | 1978 | Engineering and applied technology |
| Islamic University of Gaza | Gaza City | 1978 | Gaza's academic flagship; medicine and engineering |
| Al-Azhar University–Gaza | Gaza City | 1991 | Pharmacy, agriculture, the secular Gaza tradition |
| Al-Aqsa University | Gaza City | 1991 | Teacher training and the arts, public and affordable |
*Birzeit's college roots reach to 1924 and An-Najah's to 1918; the dates mark university status.
How the fees work#
West Bank universities bill by the credit hour, almost always in Jordanian dinars, and a dinar is pegged at 1.41 US dollars. A bachelor's degree runs 120 to 160 credit hours over four to five years, and a normal year carries 30 to 36 hours.
Published per-hour rates at the nonprofit universities mostly sit in the tens of dinars, rising with the faculty: humanities, business and education at the lower band, engineering, IT and nursing in the middle, and medicine, dentistry and pharmacy at the top, where some schools price the hour past 120 dinars.
A typical bachelor's year at a nonprofit West Bank university lands between roughly 1,300 and 2,500 dinars — about 1,800 to 3,500 dollars — while medicine can run several times that.
Times of Palestine reading of the universities' published 2025–26 fee tables
Graduate study is priced the same way. Birzeit, for example, publishes 125 dinars per credit hour across its master's programs, with the MBA at 160.
The Arab American University, as a private institution, prices differently: local undergraduates pay in the region of 7,000 dollars a year by its published schedules, with health professions above that. Its scholarships and sibling discounts are extensive, and most students pay less than the sticker rate.
Housing and living add to the bill. Students from outside a university's city commonly budget 150 to 300 dinars a month for shared housing, transport and food, and checkpoint geography often decides whether commuting is possible at all.
Gaza's universities in wartime#
Gaza's three big campuses answer a different question this year. The war destroyed or heavily damaged the main buildings of the Islamic University, Al-Azhar and Al-Aqsa, and all three moved teaching into emergency online programs, temporary halls and partner arrangements abroad, the universities said in their continuity announcements.
Fee collection followed the emergency: the Gaza universities have announced waivers, reductions and deferrals term by term, and no pre-war fee table should be read as current. What has not stopped is the teaching itself — exams have run from tents, borrowed classrooms and diaspora study halls, and the universities keep graduating classes in the middle of the destruction.
For international students: Arabic immersion at a fraction of the price#
The same fee tables read differently from abroad: for international students who want to learn Arabic in the Middle East, the West Bank's universities are among the region's most affordable serious options — and the immersion is total, because campus life runs in Arabic.
Birzeit's Palestine and Arabic Studies program has taught international students Arabic alongside Palestine-focused coursework for decades, with semester fees published per credit in the same dinar system, and An-Najah's language center runs Arabic for non-native speakers through the year. A semester of intensive Arabic in Birzeit or Nablus typically costs less than comparable programs in Amman or Beirut, with living costs to match.
The honest caveat belongs beside the invitation: entry runs through Israeli-controlled borders, visa renewals are unpredictable, and every program's international office briefs applicants on the current procedure. Students who make the journey describe the reward the same way — the language, and the country that teaches it.
Help paying for it#
Nearly every university on this list runs need and merit funds of its own, and the PA's student lending fund serves enrolled Palestinians across institutions. For funded study, including full rides abroad and programs reserved for Gaza students, our standing Scholarship Map tracks the open windows program by program.
The practical sequence for a family is the one admissions officers themselves recommend: pick the program first, read the university's own current fee table, then apply for the aid before the semester starts, because most funds close their windows early.
