Antisemitic incidents across British universities remain significantly elevated compared to levels recorded prior to the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel, according to data published by the Community Security Trust (CST).
The monitoring charity recorded 95 antisemitic incidents affecting Jewish students, academics, university staff, or campus organisations during the 2025/26 academic year. This follows 83 reports logged in the 2024/25 academic year, marking a 14 percent increase over the past year. In contrast, the 2022/23 academic year—the last full academic period before the outbreak of the current conflict in Gaza—saw 53 reported incidents.
CST Data Tracks Multi-Year Surge in Campus Antisemitism
While the recent figures remain below the unprecedented 272 incidents recorded during the immediate aftermath of the October 2023 attacks in the 2023/24 academic year, the charity warned that universities face an entrenched baseline of hostility.
Abusive behaviour dominated the recorded cases, accounting for 149 of the total incidents across the two academic years covered in the latest report. The data also captured two separate incidents of extreme violence during the 2024/25 academic year—one in Edinburgh and one in Leeds. According to the CST, these represent the first time such severe classifications, which cover attacks carrying a potential risk of loss of life or grievous bodily harm, have ever been logged at UK higher education institutions.
Growing Concern Over University Staff Involvement
The report drew particular attention to incidents perpetrated by university employees, who were responsible for 16 antisemitic occurrences over the two-year monitoring window. Classroom-based incidents involving staff members were highlighted as especially significant.
“University staff occupy positions of authority and influence, so their views carry increased weight with their audience,” the CST stated in its report, adding that students often feel reluctant to challenge or report antisemitic behavior originating from lecturers, tutors, or supervisors.
Mark Gardner, chief executive of the CST, emphasized the vulnerability these dynamics create for Jewish members of the academic community.
“These figures show that Jews are still facing a very serious campus antisemitism problem,” Gardner said. “Figures have fallen from their post-7 October 2023 peak, but are still far higher than before that dreadful day. It is particularly troubling that a growing proportion of the anti-Jewish actions involve university staff, who carry authority and make victims feel especially vulnerable.”
Calls for Enforcement and Preparation Ahead of Term
In response to the findings, the charity has urged higher education institutions to treat the start of the academic year as a predictable period of heightened risk and to implement proactive safety measures.
The CST advised universities to clearly distinguish between legitimate anti-Israel speech or political activity and unlawful antisemitism, and to strictly enforce that boundary through institutional disciplinary procedures when students, staff, or campus societies cross the line.
Gardner stressed that symbolic gestures are no longer sufficient to protect students and faculty. “Universities have a duty to ensure that Jewish students and staff can study, work and participate on campus the same as anyone else,” he said. “Sympathy is not enough, it needs action against those who abuse, threaten or target Jews, whether they are students, staff or external activists.”
Lord Mann, the UK government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, echoed these demands, emphasizing the legal and moral obligations held by academic administrators.
“Universities have a duty of care towards Jewish students and staff, who should be able to carry out their work and their studies without the threat or the actuality of so-called educated people choosing to target them because they are Jewish,” Lord Mann said.
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