Union of Jewish Students Releases Landmark Report on UK Campus Antisemitism Crisis
UJS calls for sweeping reforms as Jewish students document normalized harassment, violence, and terror support on campus across the UK
The Union of Jewish Students (UJS) has published a damning report documenting widespread antisemitism across UK campuses, revealing that nearly one in four students have witnessed behavior targeting Jewish students for their religion or ethnicity. The report, titled “Time for Change” and released in March 2026, comes two and a half years after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel—a period that has seen antisemitic incidents double nationwide, according to the Community Security Trust.
The findings paint a troubling picture: 20% of students indicated they would be reluctant to, or would never, houseshare with a Jewish student. Meanwhile, 49% have heard slogans glorifying Hamas, Hezbollah, or other proscribed terrorist organizations on campus. The report documents Jewish students being chased home, verbally abused, and physically assaulted—while universities and student unions have responded with what UJS President Louis Danker calls “concerned sentiment and piecemeal progress.”
Terror Glorification Goes Unpunished
The report’s most alarming findings center on the normalization of terrorism glorification. Polling showed that 47% of all students have witnessed slogans or chants directly justifying the October 7 attacks—a figure that rises to 77% among those who encounter Israel-Palestine protests regularly. The document catalogs multiple student groups that have celebrated October 7 as a “bold armed offensive” and praised former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as having “heroically fell in battle.”
Anonymous online groups operated by students have become particularly brazen. Leeds Students Against Apartheid Coalition, an anonymized social media page, quoted Abu Obeida, former spokesperson for Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades, and described Gaza as “the greatest military school in contemporary history.” In Glasgow, a student magazine called The Gaza Guardian sought to justify the December 2025 Bondi Beach massacre, asserting that “a dead fascist is still a fascist.”
The report documents how 18 student societies declared support for a legal application to de-proscribe Hamas as a terrorist organization in April 2025. When Oxford student Samuel Williams was arrested for chanting “Gaza, Gaza, make us proud, put the Zios in the ground,” multiple student groups rallied behind him with graphics glorifying the violent slogan.
Physical Violence and Social Ostracization
Beyond rhetoric, Jewish students face direct physical threats. The report details incidents where students wearing kippot were chased home by individuals brandishing weapons. In Birmingham, a car followed two Jewish students home, with pursuers climbing lampposts outside their residence and telling passersby to “remember this address as Jews live here.”
A Jewish Society committee member in Bristol was physically assaulted in a nightclub after approaching a pro-Palestinian encampment for conversation—his shirt was ripped and back covered in scratches.
Social ostracization has become equally pervasive. One in four students (26%) reported knowing of, or personally experiencing, friendships with Jewish students becoming strained—rising to 36% at elite Russell Group universities. The report documents a flat of students posting on social media that they had “only one rule - no Zios in the flat,” using what the report identifies as an antisemitic slur coined by former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.
Universities Fail to Act
The polling reveals widespread institutional failure. Of students who witnessed antisemitism, only 20% challenged it directly, while just 22% reported it to students’ unions and 23% to universities. Meanwhile, 25% of students indicated they don’t care “very much” or “at all” if students can be open about their Jewish identity on campus.
Protests have disrupted learning for 65% of students, with 40% altering their campus routes to avoid demonstrations. Yet 69% disapprove of protests blocking access to teaching spaces, and 82% believe calls to “globalise the intifada” are antisemitic—suggesting universities have student support for stronger action. The report found that 39% of students who witness regular protests have seen Jewish students harassed “very” or “fairly” often during demonstrations.
Six Recommendations for Change
UJS is calling for sweeping reforms, including enforceable standards for hate crime investigations with mandatory reporting to the Office for Students, stronger regulation of students’ unions by universities and the Charity Commission, and a national counter-extremism strategy focused on campus radicalization.
The organization also wants clearer public order guidance for universities and police, formalized coordination taskforces to tackle extremist activity, and sector-wide adoption of best practices for Jewish inclusion, including mandatory antisemitism awareness training.
“Jewish students will continue to create proud, vibrant Jewish life on campus,” Danker wrote in the report’s introduction. “But one in five students in this country would be reluctant to houseshare with a Jew. That is no position for a proud liberal democracy to find itself in.”
The polling, conducted by JL Partners between January 26 and February 4, 2026, surveyed 1,000 UK university students across 170 institutions, weighted to reflect the UK student population. UJS supplemented the quantitative data with dozens of firsthand testimonies from Jewish students detailing their experiences of harassment, assault, and exclusion.