Campus antisemitic incidents climb for a second year, charity reports

Antisemitism affecting students and staff at UK universities rose again in the latest academic year, according to the Community Security Trust, a charity that tracks antisemitic incidents and works closely with the Jewish community and government.

The CST recorded 95 "university-related" incidents during the 2025-26 academic year, an increase from the 83 reported in 2024-25. The figure remains well below the surge recorded in 2023-24, the year that began with the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the launch of the war in Gaza — when the charity logged 272 cases. Even so, the trust said, the current level stays "substantially higher" than it was before that conflict, with 53 incidents logged in 2022-23, the final year before the attack.

The trust's report, which examines the past two academic years, traces a pattern of decline followed by resurgence: reported incidents fell across 2024-25 before growing again in 2025-26. The charity defines an incident as "university-related" when it involves a student, member of staff or academic at a UK university acting in their academic or student capacity, whether it happens on campus, in university property, or online.

Abusive behaviour was the most frequently recorded category of incident across both years covered by the report. That category includes verbal abuse, hostile comments made face to face or online, and antisemitic graffiti. The charity said that, for the first time in the series it publishes, it had logged two occurrences of extreme violence during 2024-25.

Physical and property-based incidents were less common but persistent. The report counted six reported assaults across the two academic years, eight incidents of damage or desecration affecting Jewish property — five of which took place in student accommodation — and ten separate threats.

A significant share of the abuse has been tied to the contemporary Middle East conflict. Around two-thirds of reported incidents over the two years involved antisemitic language or targeting appearing alongside references to Israel, Gaza, Hamas, the 7 October attack and the wars that followed. The war in Gaza began after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Israel subsequently launched a mass military offensive on Gaza which, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, has killed around 74,000 people.

The CST cautioned that the data should not be read as evidence that legitimate political criticism is antisemitic. "While criticism of Israel and Zionism is not inherently antisemitic, the data in this report continue to demonstrate that anti-Zionist language is frequently deployed in conjunction with hostility towards Jews and Jewish organisations," it said.

Mark Gardner, the charity's chief executive, said Jews were "still facing a very serious campus antisemitism problem". He described it as "particularly troubling that a growing proportion of the anti-Jewish actions involve university staff" — a shift he said raised questions about campus culture and institutional response rather than student conduct alone.

Gardner said universities had "a duty to ensure that Jewish students and staff can study, work and participate on campus the same as anyone else", arguing that equal participation depends on universities acting decisively rather than treating reported incidents as isolated disputes.

The charity's findings drew a response from the sector's main representative body. Universities UK, which represents more than 140 institutions, said its members needed to "protect Jewish students and staff", adding that the findings were a "serious concern".

Vivienne Stern, UUK's chief executive, said the rise in antisemitic incidents across the UK, including on campuses, was a serious concern, and that universities have a responsibility both to protect Jewish students and staff from abuse and to make clear where the expression of a strongly held view crosses into antisemitism and harassment.

Stern said UUK has worked with organisations including the CST on guidance for universities, but acknowledged there was "more to do, particularly in building confidence in the effectiveness of disciplinary processes" — an admission that students and staff have doubted whether complaints are acted upon.

The government has also weighed in. Lucy Powell, education secretary in England, called the findings "deeply troubling" and said the government expects universities to take a zero-tolerance approach to antisemitism. She said training was being provided to help university staff identify and respond to incidents swiftly.

Raphi Leon, president of the Union of Jewish Students, said the report "must be a shot in the arm to boost action to support Jewish students and tackle antisemitism", calling for the new data to be treated as a warning rather than a statistical curiosity.

Taken together, the figures present a mixed picture for universities: antisemitic incidents have dropped substantially from the extraordinary peak of 2023-24, but have risen in each of the past two years, remain well above pre-2023 levels, and increasingly involve staff as well as students. With pressure mounting from government, the sector body and student organisations, the focus now turns to whether sanctions, training and disciplinary systems can keep pace with a problem that the CST says shows no sign of settling at pre-conflict levels.