Antisemitism: Universities

Debate between Baroness Smith of Malvern and Lord Leigh of Hurley

Wednesday 29th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Leigh of Hurley]

To ask His Majesty’s Government, following the reported threats to Professor Michael Ben-Gad, what further steps they are taking to ensure universities tackle antisemitism, and to protect Jewish academics and students from abuse.

[The Minister of State, Department for Education (Baroness Smith of Malvern) (Lab)]

My Lords, the targeted antisemitic campaign against Professor Ben-Gad is deeply troubling and has no place in our lecture halls, on campus or anywhere else. It is not free speech; it is harassment and it is abhorrent. Where a student is found to have been responsible for racially motivated harassment, intimidation or incitement to violence, I expect universities to react swiftly and to use the full force of their disciplinary powers to stop this happening again.

[Lord Leigh of Hurley (Con)]

I thank the Minister for that. Since the year following 7 October 2023, Jewish students have seen a 413% increase in antisemitic incidents on campus. In the last three weeks alone, there have been death threats in university WhatsApp groups and university students chanting, “Put the Zios in the ground”. The Union of Jewish Students is calling on the DfE and the OFS to provide specific and actionable further guidance to universities on steps they need to take to protect Jewish students, and to give the vice-chancellors specifically simple and clear communication on what they can do. Will the Minister commit to do that, and more, to stop the glorification of terrorism?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

Yes. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State met the Union of Jewish Students just last week and wrote directly to vice-chancellors to outline the seriousness of this issue and the responsibility and action that she expected them to take. This was further pursued in a call with vice-chancellors that the Secretary of State attended last Friday, organised by Universities UK. In addition, we are using the additional funding for antisemitism training across schools and universities to address this issue. The OFS, through the new condition E6, which started this August, has made completely clear to universities their responsibility to prevent the sort of harassment and intimidation that we have seen too much of.

Campus Antisemitism in Britain: Community Security Trust Report

Debate between Baroness Smith of Malvern and Lord Leigh of Hurley

Wednesday 12th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The right reverend Prelate makes the important point, as did the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, that there are some universities which are taking this challenge extremely seriously and are making progress. It is important that we share that best practice as widely as possible. On the role of chaplaincies, one of the things that this Government have already done is to provide £500,000 to the University Jewish Chaplaincy, to help to support student welfare on university campuses, as part of the £7 million in funding that we have confirmed to address anti-Semitism in schools, colleges and universities.

[Lord Leigh of Hurley (Con)]

One of the areas led on by the CST was the encampments at the universities, which provide an intimidating and, frankly, terrifying atmosphere for Jewish students. I have walked past them myself and I have seen them. They have been joined by people from outside the university who are masked, shouting slogans supporting terror. What steps will the Minister take to encourage vice-chancellors to move these encampments away from the central parts of the universities—free speech is fine, but not right in the centre of a university—and pursue those who are clearly guilty of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic rhetoric?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right that encampments have been enormously intimidating and that they have attracted external activists on to campuses, often in a very intimidating way. Universities have already been working hard to improve on the situation from 2023-24, when there were a number of pro-Palestine encampments—at one point, there were around 40 active encampments. Some universities have taken legal action in order to secure possession orders in legal cases. Those cases were helpful for other universities contemplating or in the middle of possession proceedings against similar student encampments. So far, in this academic year, 2024-25, protesters have not been able to establish any kind of encampment lasting more than a few hours. Universities appear to be learning a lot from last year’s experience, both in being able to de-escalate incidents where possible and, where necessary, taking formal action to prevent disruption to core activities, including teaching.