Universities spend ‘at least £1m’ dealing with Gaza encampments

A portable toilet costing £1,234 was even provided to Imperial’s student protesters, who took their tents down in time for the college summer ball declaring: “The encampment has served its purpose of... expelling Zionism from our campus.”

Outside London, Cardiff University – which has a £35 million deficit – spent £125,522 on its tent village, and Sheffield University dished out £137,945.

When Birmingham University requested a court order to remove an encampment, it released evidence suggesting the campsite had cost the university around £246,999. This was put down to a combination of extra security requirements and need to relocate major events, including 28 graduation ceremonies.

A number of universities approached with FOI requests have yet to respond or have refused on the grounds of “safety concerns”.

Halfon said the price tag was “grim”, adding: “The demonstrations are costing all students money. Universities should be spending this money on teaching, not on these unnecessary protests.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Education told the JC: “While protests at UK universities have largely remained peaceful, the right to protest must not be abused to intimidate others or disrupt students’ learning.”

Sir Anthony Finkelstein CBE, president of City, University of London, said he thought the cost outlined by the responses to the JC’s initial FOIs was “a drop in the ocean of the overall cost if you think about the management cost of overseeing this and what is absorbed in business as usual”.

At Leeds, where a university rabbi was forced into hiding after a barrage of death threats and two Jewish students were attacked on their way to synagogue, the university hired CCTV costing £3,459 and £1,120-worth of additional security for two open days.

Although the encampment was taken down after Leeds launched legal proceedings, students have threatened to “escalate” their protests next academic year.

Cambridge University spent £21,000 on added security, a figure which did not include expenditure by individual colleges, and Sussex University spent £24,112 on security for weekly demonstrations organised by the Friends of Palestine student society.

At Edinburgh University, £13,559 was spent on the encampment in Old College – but protests erupted across campus, including at several graduation ceremonies.

The School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas), which has been home to a tent protest since May, said disclosing information requested by the FOI could “endanger the safety” of individuals and “alert malicious actors” to “overwhelm our security and endanger members of the public, our community and our property.”

Private security was deployed around the clock at the London university. On June 4, a security guard was physically assaulted at the encampment according to a statement released by Soas after seven people were arrested.

The police have been called to numerous encampments and Jewish students have spoken about the hostile environment on campus.

At Oxford, where the university spent £5,054 on security at an encampment at the National History Museum, police were called to a protest on May 23, where they made 16 arrests on suspicion of aggravated trespass and one arrest on suspicion of assault.

The camp in Oxford (Image: Sky News)[Missing Credit]

Protests at Oxford went on for weeks on either side of the arrests, during which time an Israeli fellow was allegedly threatened and called a “Zionist Nazi” by protesters, and at Regent’s Park College a number of swastikas were said to have been carved into toilet doors.

Elsewhere, police attended protests at St Andrews “from time to time” and at UAL police attended “on occasion” to “check in” with occupying students. Law enforcement has been present at protests at the University of East Anglia (UEA), Edinburgh, Cardiff and Queen Mary, to name a few.

At the height of the anti-Israel protests, several students moved away from their campuses. In February, one Jewish student at UEA was said to be too fearful to go onto the “anti-Israel and anti-Zionist” campus, which was covered with graffiti. At UAL, one student cited the Gaza protests as a reason for leaving the university all together.

At Soas, the university said it had been forced to “increase security to protect our Board of Trustees meetings” after protests were directed at senior managers.

This added pressure on universities has, in some cases, led to senior management caving to students’ demands: Trinity College Dublin and Trinity College Cambridge both agreed to divest from Israel. The Cambridge college allegedly voted to withdraw funds from all arms companies, while just five days into student protests in Dublin the university said it “will complete a divestment from investments in Israeli companies”.

Many universities, meanwhile, are struggling to maintain the quality of student experience with their current resources. Some have announced redundancies and many are projected to fall into deficit.

The average shortfall for every UK undergraduate student last academic year was approximately £2,500, according to an analysis by the Russell Group. This is projected to grow year-on-year, with universities warning that the sector is facing a funding emergency.

High levels of inflation coupled with uncertainty around the future of the international student market and a loss of EU funds have driven the crisis, but the cost of encampments has also been a burden.

A student Gaza "solidarity camp" set up on the grounds of the Old College, University of Edinburgh. The university spent £13,559 on private security around the tents. Students' demands included full divestment from Israeli-linked companies, condemnation of historical involvement in Palestine, and scholarships for Palestinian students from Gaza. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)Getty Images

Sir Anthony said: “This [debate around the war in Gaza] has entailed a great deal of management time and attention and places great demands on university services... Nothing is for nothing. The effort of managing this across the campus must come from somewhere.

“If you think about the full range of services that are likely to be entailed – the management time, student support, the chaplaincy, the cost to the student’s union and other services – the cost across the institutions’ services dealing with the tensions that have arisen are likely to be exceptionally high.”

The City University president said free speech must be protected at university and added: “Activity intended to disrupt the process of learning directly undermines free speech and goes into unacceptable conduct.

“The critical function of a university is to be the home of critical and contested discourse, thus ensuring that a university can be a place where that can take place is a core function of a university... Money spent on affording open and free discourse in a university is money well spent, it is what a university is for. Money spent on handling those who are intent to disrupt learning can be ill-afforded and is, in my view, an unacceptable imposition by protesters.”

A spokesperson for the Union of Jewish Students highlighted the toll that the protests have had on Jewish students, saying they have “supported thousands of Jewish students through incidents of antisemitism, as well as instances of anxiety and worry about the toxic hostility on campus.”

UJS told the JC: “It will take more than money to change the concerns of Jewish students. It will take decisive, meaningful, and thoughtful action.

“UJS has written to all vice-chancellors in the UK and Ireland asking what they plan to do to protect, reassure and support Jewish students as thousands flock back in September. UJS will continue to work with universities, security services, and student unions in the year ahead to ensure that Jewish students are safe on campus.”

The JC approached all of the universities mentioned for comment.

A St Andrews spokesperson noted, “Protests in St Andrews to date have been small, generally responsibly managed, and well behaved. They have taken place on a public street, not university property, and local police have been in occasional attendance to monitor and give advice on road safety etc.

A spokesperson for Soas said: “Whenever people protest or express themselves there are costs involved, and that is the price we pay if we wish to live in a free and democratic society. We continue to work hard to ensure that every member of our community feels safe and supported while on our campus to study and work.”

Meanwhile, UAL told the JC: “UAL wants to create a culture where everyone feels safe to express their opinions. We passionately believe in upholding free speech within the law and have continued to support our staff and students’ right to peaceful protest and assembly.

“Our first priority remains the safety and wellbeing of our UAL community. To ensure we support our staff and students to express their positions on Israel-Palestine safely and securely, we have spent an additional £117,143.14 on security.”

A UEA spokesperson said they had a “central budget for university security services, ensuring the wellbeing and safety of our students, staff and visitors. The costs have not increased over the last year.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “There is absolutely no place for antisemitism in our society, and it is essential that Jewish students feel safe on campuses. While protests at UK universities have largely remained peaceful, the right to protest must not be abused to intimidate others or disrupt students’ learning. We have ordered legislation on the Free Speech Act to be stopped, as it could expose students to harm and appalling hate speech on campuses.

“Universities in the UK operate independently and are responsible for their own financial decisions.”