A university scholarship programme that has spent more than a decade fostering dialogue between Palestinian and Israeli undergraduates in the UK will close this summer due to escalating "financial constraints".

Since it launched in 2004 at City University, London, the Olive Tree Programme has sponsored Palestinian and Israeli students to come to the UK to pursue their studies.

In 12 years, 58 Palestinians and Israelis have graduated through the programme, including Stav Shaffir, the youngest member of the Knesset.

But the programme's administrators have said they will no longer be able to offer scholarships due to "rising costs and increased calls on philanthropic giving". Instead, Olive Tree will now become a research programme, focusing on building bridges across the cultural and political divide.