Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg Changes Nationality of Palestinian Students to “Stateless” then Reverses Decision.

On April 26, 2024, 14 Palestinian students at Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg received an email from the Department of Student Affairs that their nationality entry must be changed to “stateless.” These students had entered “Palestinian Territories” as their nationality at enrollment.

In the email, the university informed the students that “due to the changes in the statistical requirements [as set out by the Law on Statistics for Higher Education], ‘Palestinian Territories’ may no longer be used as a nationality in the next official student registration, as this is not a clarified nationality. Instead, the information ‘stateless’ must be entered. We will make this change in our student information system in the next few days. We kindly ask for your understanding.”

On April 30, 2024, after receiving a considerable amount of external pressure about their email, the university’s rector, Prof. Jens Strackeljan, released a statement which announced that this decision had been reversed. The statement reads, “After receiving several inquiries and a subsequent repeated examination of the legislator’s requirements, this procedure turned out to be unnecessary at the present time and will therefore not be implemented. The students concerned will now be informed immediately. The University of Magdeburg sincerely apologizes to the students for the misinformation.” This statement was posted on the university’s social media channels.

On May 30, 2024, a group of students identifying as Students for Palestine, Magdeburg conducted a flash mob at the university’s canteen, protesting “the inhumane war crimes of the Israeli state.” On the same day, the group released a six-point list of demands to the university’s administration via Instagram. The list includes “An official and comprehensive apology from the university administration to Palestinian students for the erroneous change in higher education statistics,” as well as “an explanation of the measures that will be taken to prevent such incidents in which students are marginalized and discriminated against in the future.” The university has not publicly responded to these demands.