UK Campus Antisemitism Reports Rise, Monitoring Group Says
Report date: September 30, 2026 (United Kingdom)
Reuters publication: September 29, 2026, at 11:02 p.m. UTC (6:02 p.m. Central Time)
Procedural status: Newly released civil-society monitoring report. It is not a government administrative finding, court ruling, criminal conviction, or independently adjudicated determination.
What the report says
The Community Security Trust (CST), a British charity that monitors antisemitism and provides security advice to Jewish communities, says it recorded 178 university-related antisemitic incidents during the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years.
CST recorded 95 incidents in 2025/26, a 14% increase from 83 in the previous academic year and nearly 80% above the 53 incidents recorded in 2022/23, the final academic year before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.
Most reports involved alleged abusive behavior, including verbal abuse, antisemitic comments, or graffiti directed at students, staff, or Jewish organizations. CST recorded six assaults across the two-year period and classified two incidents in 2024/25 as “extreme violence.” It attributed 16 reported incidents to university staff.
Important qualification
These figures represent incidents reported to and classified by CST. CST defines an antisemitic incident as a malicious act targeting Jewish people, organizations, or property where there is evidence of antisemitic motivation, content, or targeting. The reported totals should not be presented as proven criminal offenses or adjudicated findings against particular institutions or individuals.
Government response
British Education Secretary Lucy Powell said, “No student should have to choose between expressing their identity and feeling safe on campus, yet for too many Jewish students that remains a reality.”
Reuters did not include a response from Universities UK or from individual universities associated with the reported incidents.
Why it matters
The figures indicate that reported antisemitic incidents affecting British universities remain substantially above their pre–October 2023 level, even after falling sharply from the exceptional surge recorded during the 2023/24 academic year.