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So when the letter admitting the 25-year-old to a direct-entry PhD program in civil engineering arrived in his email inbox in April 2024, he was at a loss for words.

“I was at the top of happiness to get an opportunity like this one,” recounted Akram, now 27. The Star agreed to only use his first name due to concerns about his family’s safety in case they are tracked.

Not only has it been his dream since childhood to get an education — he had already achieved this in part, graduating top of his class as an undergrad from a university in Gaza — but Akram hoped to use his Canadian education to help rebuild after the war.

But more than a year since he was admitted to U of T, Akram is still not in Canada as he waits for the federal government to approve his student visa. He’s not sure when that might be.

“We are stuck here,” he said, speaking over Zoom from northern Gaza last week.

Akram is one of nearly 70 Palestinian students that the advocacy group Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk (PSSAR) is trying to help come to Canada as they are left waiting, in Gaza and neighbouring countries like Egypt and Jordan, for their visa applications to be approved.

A majority of these students have been accepted into graduate school programs at over 20 Canadian universities, and for those who haven’t been able to flee Gaza it has meant waiting anywhere between months to over a year while trying to survive a worsening humanitarian crisis.

Meanwhile, the professors who are set to be these students’ academic advisers can do little besides watch from afar.

“It’s really devastating,” said Ayman Oweida, a professor at the University of Sherbrooke and chair of PSSAR’s board of directors. “You feel a sense of hopelessness and a sense of despair when it comes to how to help these students further, other than to maintain contact with them.”

The wait for these students has been “excessive,” according to Baher Abdulhai, a professor at U of T and another PSSAR board member.

“We need to move these people out of the horror they are going through immediately,” Abdulhai said. “Otherwise we lose them and we lose what we committed to them.”

There have already been instances where students in Gaza have been killed while waiting for their visas, including twin sisters in an Israeli airstrike in December. Abdulhai said his wife, another university professor, also recently learned one of her prospective students stuck in Gaza was killed.

Both Oweida and Abdulhai blame Ottawa, saying PSSAR has been calling on Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to speed up the visa approval process. They alleged that Palestinian students have been subject to more security checks than other applicants.

It’s not just students who say they are waiting a long time for visa approval. Palestinian Canadians hoping to help their family members fleeÌý²¹²Ô»åÌýlawyers have been calling on the government to speed up processing, citing the war and worsening humanitarian crisis.

The Immigration department said in an emailed statement to the Star that it is “committed to a fair and non-discriminatory application of immigration procedures” and that all applicants are subject to the same security screenings.

The department also recognized that some students have been experiencing longer processing times for their study permit applications, and said it can’t predict wait times for those in Gaza “due to challenges beyond IRCC’s control.”

“There are many complex factors to processing applications for those in the region, including the ongoing challenges for those seeking to exit Gaza,” the agency wrote. “We continue working closely with local authorities — at every level — to advocate for the exit of people in Gaza, however we do not ultimately decide who can leave.”

Oweida and Abdulhai pointed to France speeding up its visa approval process for Palestinians admitted to French universities as something Canada should consider doing.

For its part, a spokesperson for U of T said Ottawa is responsible for assessing study permit applications, but that the university is in regular contact with the federal government on visa processing times.

The euphoria Akram felt in the days after getting admitted to U of T back in April 2024 has faded, replaced by sadness and disappointment toward the Canadian government.

Over the past 16 months, he has missed his deferred admission date he requested back in August 2024, meaning he needs to apply to U of T again. He also hasn’t seen his family, displaced in a different part of Gaza, for three months.

“I do what I can,” he said, adding he looks for a way to keep going each day.

Still, he hopes to one day make it to É«É«À² or somewhere else in Canada to continue his education.

“I want an opportunity to start again.”