Report warns UK campuses are becoming breeding grounds for extremism

British universities are failing to protect Jewish students as campuses become increasingly hostile and extreme following 7 October, a major new report has warned.

The 2026 Voice of Students report by StandWithUs UK claims that some universities are becoming “breeding grounds for extremism”, with Jewish students describing alleged assaults, death threats, intimidation and antisemitic abuse.

The report includes testimonies from students at institutions including University College London, King’s College London, University of Birmingham and Queen’s University Belfast.

One Jewish student at Royal Holloway, University of London, said they received anonymous calls in which someone allegedly read out their address and warned they were “coming to get” them, alongside an explicit online threat to “blow up” the Jewish society.

Another student at City St George’s, University of London claimed they were targeted by a group who attempted to push them down a staircase, while a testimony from Bangor University accused a professor of physically assaulting a Jewish student and calling him a “baby killer” during a protest.

Students also described being called “dirty Jews”, “kikes” and “Zionist scum”, with some saying they no longer felt safe visibly identifying as Jewish on campus.

One student at University of Birmingham said: “Students have also reported being called slurs such as ‘kikes,’ being described as ‘whiny Jewish people,’ and even being greeted with Nazi salutes in local shops.”

Another student at Queen’s University Belfast said: “Simply believing in Zionism is often enough to make me perceived as an enemy, or at the very least as an outsider.”

The report claims some academic staff are contributing to what it describes as a growing climate of hostility.

One testimony from University College London alleged a campus speaker repeated antisemitic conspiracy theories, including claims Jews “control the media” and used “the blood of non-Jews to make matzah.”

A student at University of Manchester also alleged a lecturer defended hostage-taking as “the only way for Palestinians to negotiate.”

StandWithUs UK executive director Isaac Zarfati said: “StandWithUs UK’s report reveals the brutal reality of life at university for British Jews.

“The UK’s historic university sector is now at risk of collapsing into hubs of radicalisation and extremism. University leaders have failed to display the urgency and resolve needed to address this crisis and must be held accountable before tragedy strikes.”

The report is backed by 11 cross-party parliamentarians, including Luke Akehurst, Richard Tice, Christine Jardine and Baroness Hodge.

In a letter endorsing the findings, they warn that “the explosion of antisemitism on the UK’s university campuses has become a national crisis”.

The report calls on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to formally recognise anti-Zionism that denies Israel’s right to exist as antisemitism and urges Parliament to summon university vice-chancellors to explain how complaints involving Jewish students have been handled.