Across British university campuses, a troubling pattern has reasserted itself: antisemitic incidents have climbed again to 95 in the 2025-26 academic year, reversing a brief decline and settling at a level nearly double the pre-conflict baseline of 2022-23. The Community Security Trust's latest data, released this week, reveals not a crisis resolved but one that has found a disturbing new equilibrium — shaped by the long shadow of the Gaza war, the entanglement of political rhetoric with personal hostility, and the unresolved question of how institutions of learning protect their most vulnerab
UK university antisemitism incidents rise again, charity warns
Jewish students and staff at UK universities face harassment, verbal abuse, physical assaults, and threats creating an unsafe campus environment.
Jews are still facing a very serious campus antisemitism problem
Mark
So the numbers went down from 2023-24 to 2024-25, but now they're climbing again. What does that tell us?
Mimi
It suggests the initial shock and intensity of the conflict didn't sustain at that fever pitch, but the underlying tensions haven't resolved. We're not returning to pre-October 2023 levels—we're stuck at a new, higher baseline.
Luke
But we should be careful here. Are these incidents actually increasing, or is reporting increasing? The CST tracks what's reported to them. If universities got better at documenting incidents, the numbers could go up without the actual problem worsening.
Mimi
That's fair. The CST does note that staff involvement is growing, which is a separate concern—that's not just about reporting, that's about who's participating.
Mark
The report says two-thirds of incidents involved antisemitic language alongside references to Gaza or Israel. How do you separate that from legitimate political speech?
Mimi
That's the central tension. The CST itself says criticism of Israel isn't inherently antisemitic. But when you're combining that criticism with hostility toward Jewish people or organizations, you've crossed a line.
Luke
Right, but the report doesn't give us the breakdown. We don't know in how many of those two-thirds of cases the antisemitism was the primary driver versus incidental. That matters for understanding what's actually happening.
Mark
Universities are saying they need better disciplinary processes. What does that mean in practice?
Mimi
It means students and staff need to know what the consequences actually are. Right now there's a trust gap—people don't believe universities will follow through.
Luke
And that's a real problem because it cuts both ways. If Jewish students don't trust the system to protect them, they feel unsafe. If other students don't trust the system to be fair, they feel targeted. Both undermine the campus.
Mark
Is this a UK-specific problem or is it happening elsewhere?
Mimi
The report doesn't address that, so we don't know from this data alone. But the timing—tied directly to the October 2023 attack and Gaza war—suggests it's connected to global tensions playing out on British campuses.
Luke
Which is important context. This isn't isolated to universities; it's a reflection of broader polarization. The universities are being asked to solve something that's much larger than campus policy.
The Pulse
- Antisemitic incidents at UK universities have risen again to 95 in 2025-26, reversing last year's decline and signaling that the post-October 2023 surge has not faded but hardened into a new normal.
- The incidents range from verbal abuse and online harassment to physical assaults, threats, and property desecration — with 2024-25 marking the first time extreme violence appeared in the CST's university records.
- A growing share of incidents now involves university staff rather than students alone, deepening concern that the problem has embedded itself at every level of campus life.
- Around two-thirds of cases link antisemitic language directly to Israel-Gaza rhetoric, forcing universities to navigate the contested boundary between political speech and discriminatory harassment.
- Government officials, university bodies, and student leaders are all calling for stronger disciplinary enforcement and staff training, but confidence that institutions will act decisively remains fragile.
Across British university campuses, a troubling pattern has reasserted itself: antisemitic incidents have climbed again to 95 in the 2025-26 academic year, reversing a brief decline and settling at a level nearly double the pre-conflict baseline of 2022-23. The Community Security Trust's latest data, released this week, reveals not a crisis resolved but one that has found a disturbing new equilibrium — shaped by the long shadow of the Gaza war, the entanglement of political rhetoric with personal hostility, and the unresolved question of how institutions of learning protect their most vulnerable members while remaining spaces of open debate.
Antisemitism on British university campuses is rising again after a brief reprieve. The Community Security Trust recorded 95 incidents involving students and staff in the 2025-26 academic year, up from 83 the year before. Though far below the 272 cases logged in 2023-24 — when the Gaza war first convulsed campuses — the figure is nearly double the 53 incidents recorded in 2022-23, before the conflict began. The hoped-for return to normality has not arrived.
The incidents cover a wide and disturbing range: verbal abuse, antisemitic graffiti, online hostility, eight instances of damage or desecration to Jewish property, ten threats, and six assaults across the two most recent years. Most gravely, 2024-25 saw the first recorded cases of extreme violence in the CST's university data. About two-thirds of all incidents paired antisemitic language with references to Israel, Gaza, or Hamas — a pattern the CST says illustrates how anti-Zionist rhetoric is frequently used as a vehicle for direct hostility toward Jewish people, not merely political criticism.
CST chief executive Mark Gardner pointed to a particularly worrying shift: a growing proportion of incidents now involve staff, not just students. England's education secretary Lucy Powell called the findings deeply troubling and said universities must adopt a zero-tolerance approach backed by swift staff training. Universities UK acknowledged the seriousness of the situation, with its chief executive Vivienne Stern conceding that while guidance has been developed, significant work remains — especially in strengthening disciplinary processes and rebuilding trust that consequences will actually follow violations.
Raphi Leon of the Union of Jewish Students framed the report as a demand for action over statements. The challenge universities face is real and unresolved: how to protect Jewish students and staff from harassment while preserving the space for legitimate, if heated, political debate about the Middle East — a balance that has eluded British higher education since October 2023.
Antisemitism on British university campuses is rising again after a brief decline, according to monitoring data released this week. The Community Security Trust, a charity that tracks antisemitic incidents, recorded 95 cases involving students and staff across UK universities in the 2025-26 academic year—up from 83 the year before. While this represents a drop from the alarming spike that followed the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent Gaza war, the current numbers remain substantially elevated compared to the pre-conflict baseline.
The trajectory tells a stark story. In 2022-23, before the Middle East conflict escalated, the CST documented 53 university-related incidents. That figure exploded to 272 in 2023-24 as tensions over Gaza roiled campuses. The numbers fell in 2024-25, offering a moment of hope that the worst had passed. But the latest academic year brought a reversal: incidents climbed again to 95, suggesting the problem has not resolved but merely stabilized at a level far above historical norms.
The incidents themselves span a troubling range. Abusive behavior—verbal assaults, online comments, antisemitic graffiti—remains the most common category. But the CST report also documents six assaults across the two most recent academic years, eight instances of damage or desecration to Jewish property (five occurring in student housing), and ten threats. Most strikingly, 2024-25 saw two cases of extreme violence, marking the first time such incidents appeared in the charity's records.
About two-thirds of all reported incidents involved antisemitic language paired with references to Israel, Gaza, Hamas, or the broader Middle East conflicts. The CST notes that while criticism of Israel and Zionism itself is not inherently antisemitic, the data shows anti-Zionist rhetoric is frequently deployed alongside direct hostility toward Jewish people and Jewish organizations. This pattern underscores a central challenge universities face: distinguishing legitimate political speech from harassment that crosses into discrimination.
Mark Gardner, the CST's chief executive, highlighted a particularly concerning trend: an increasing proportion of incidents involve university staff, not just students. "Jews are still facing a very serious campus antisemitism problem," he said, emphasizing that universities have a duty to ensure Jewish students and staff can participate fully in campus life. Lucy Powell, England's education secretary, called the findings "deeply troubling" and said the government expects universities to adopt a zero-tolerance stance, with training programs to help staff identify and respond to incidents quickly.
Universities UK, which represents more than 140 institutions, acknowledged the gravity of the situation. Its chief executive, Vivienne Stern, said the rise in incidents is a serious concern and that universities bear responsibility for protecting Jewish students and staff from abuse. She noted that UUK has worked with the CST and other organizations to develop guidance for campuses, but acknowledged significant work remains—particularly in strengthening disciplinary processes and building confidence that universities will actually enforce consequences for violations.
Raphi Leon, president of the Union of Jewish Students, framed the report as a call to action. The data, he suggested, should galvanize universities to move beyond statements of concern into concrete measures that address both the incidents themselves and the underlying environment that permits them. The challenge ahead is substantial: campuses must find ways to protect vulnerable students and staff while preserving space for robust debate about Middle East politics—a balance that has proven elusive since October 2023.
Notable Quotes
Jews are still facing a very serious campus antisemitism problem, and it is particularly troubling that a growing proportion of the anti-Jewish actions involve university staff.— Mark Gardner, chief executive of the Community Security Trust
Universities have a responsibility to protect Jewish students and staff from abuse, and to ensure that students and staff clearly understand where the expression of a strongly held view becomes antisemitism and harassment.— Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK
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