Two years ago Reem and I wrote a blog entitled ‘College Counselling in Times of Conflict’ that was published in The Counsellor. We recounted the aftermath of the outbreak of war in Khartoum in April 2023 and the fallout for students at our school as they were displaced around the world.
Twenty months later, here I am blogging about our experiences as independent counsellors, supporting a wide range of High School students living in the Middle East who are struggling with the knock-on effects of a conflict launched by the USA and Israel on the last day of February, 2026.
Several of the students we support were formerly at school in Khartoum and are experiencing their second period of disruption due to war- living through a second period of life once again overshadowed by the fear of being hit by projectiles.
As we publish this blog, several RS-Ed students in Dubai are starting their fourth week of online schooling; including two weeks of Spring break. The shortcomings of extended periods of online schooling are well-documented post Covid-19. Continuing at least until April 17th, and probably beyond that, it would be true to say that our students find the prolonged online schooling to be a dispiriting process and some of them struggle to remain engaged.
Furthermore, on March 30th it was announced that IB Diploma May Session was being cancelled throughout the Gulf countries The following week the UAE ministry confirmed that all Schools and Exam Boards including IGCSE and A levels would move to the protocols developed in 2020 when exams were cancelled during the Covid Pandemic. Our considerable experience of cancelled exams, both in Covid and in 2023 when the war in Khartoum broke out ten days before the first IB Diploma exam allowed us to reassure shell-shocked families that the process was tried and tested, and, most importantly, fair.
Apart from the current war, at RS-Ed we are still dealing with outcomes from the Sudan war that has just passed its 3rd anniversary with no end in sight.
The most recent fallout is the ban on student visas for Sudanese, announced by the UK government on March 4th 2026. Several of our students already held UK university offers when the ban was announced. Despite the fact that only 210, (British-university educated) Sudanese sought asylum last year, the UK government claims this is a problem ‘solved’ by a blanket ban. The ban has impacted students with research places at Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College to name just three institutions. There is currently a group claim against the British government by five Sudanese students and one from Afghanistan, prevented from taking up their places, claiming the ban is ‘unlawful, irrational, a violation of human rights laws and a misdirection of law’.
This UK ban comes on top of the Trump administration’s June 2025 ban on visas to several African countries, including Sudan. Reem and I support several Sudanese students at United World Colleges, awarded scholarships to do the IB Diploma. Normally guaranteed scholarships from the Shelby-Davis foundation to study at US universities, this dream was snatched away from them by the USA travel ban.
Shortly after the outbreak of war in Sudan and Gaza, I was bemoaning the possibility of Trump’s re-election. My nephew told me that I shouldn’t worry, because how much could a Trump presidency ACTUALLY impact my life? I found that to be a comforting thought at the time, but since then, have gained no satisfaction at all from resoundingly proving him wrong.
The long-term effects of remote learning on students
Visa brake imposed on 4 countries after widespread visa abuse – GOV.UK
