Drawing on 36 in-depth semi-structured interviews with students and lecturers at Gaza's universities, this article explores the past and present higher education (HE) experience for educationalists in Gaza, and how this experience may be evolving in the shifting socio-political context in the Arab world. The research was conducted during the period 2012-2017 as part of an inductive PhD in Education study at the University of Cambridge. Combining Western theory and literature with Southern empirical data from the Gaza Strip, this paper reveals a simultaneous process of construction and destruction that continues to undermine the academic functioning of Gaza's universities. Highlighting this structure of 'de-development' is important in order to gain a deeper understanding of the Palestinian HE experience, and to empower academic reform at Gaza's universities and beyond.