Thirteen British universities have discussed how to handle pro-Palestine campus protests with the United Kingdom’s largest weapons manufacturer, including ramping up security at events and coordinating responses to criticism. The correspondence between universities and BAE Systems was uncovered in emails and internal documents obtained in a joint investigation by Liberty Investigates and Al Jazeera. One United Nations expert said these disclosures suggest a “troubling pattern” of universities taking “operational cues and security strategies from weapons manufacturers to suppress their own students”.
Among the institutions are the University of Manchester, the University of Nottingham, the University of Southampton, the University of Birmingham, the University of Strathclyde, and Cranfield University. Considered “strategic partners” by BAE Systems, they collectively receive up to 15 million pounds ($20m) a year from the company under funding agreements. In August 2024, BAE Systems appears to have encouraged the group of universities to develop a message “to counteract an often skewed, but prominent narrative from protesters” on their partnerships, according to slides of a presentation titled “On site protests”.
At that time, Israel had slaughtered more than 40,000 Palestinians, including 10,000 children in Gaza since October 2023. A national movement of students had been calling on their institutions to cut ties with the company, which makes equipment used by Israel’s military, among others they deemed complicit. Following an October 2024 online careers event, during which protesting students posted messages such as “BAE kills kids”, an investigator at the University of Sheffield spoke to BAE Systems before deciding to discipline four people, according to internal correspondence.
The documents that Liberty Investigates and Al Jazeera have reviewed do not detail the content of the discussion, and the university has refused to respond to freedom of information (FOI) requests. The investigator concluded that the students “may have negatively impacted the reputation of the university with a partner organisation”. They were given the choice of either paying a 75-pound ($100) fine or signing an agreement not to participate in any further unauthorised protests.
One of the disciplined students felt that BAE’s influence was apparent. A University of Sheffield spokesperson rejected those claims, saying its disciplinary procedures “are independent and not influenced by any external partnerships” and that it “consults all parties involved to ensure a fair process”. The university “spoke with BAE staff to get their account of what happened”, they said, adding that the outcome was determined on whether the “students’ behaviour breached the student code of conduct”.
Gina Romero, the UN special rapporteur for peaceful assembly and association, said, “When public universities take operational cues and security strategies from weapons manufacturers to suppress their own students, the boundary between higher education and corporate defence interests collapses. This investigation reveals a troubling pattern: universities managing protest not as spaces of free inquiry, but as corporate risk to be mitigated for key financial sponsors.” Lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour Party leader and lifelong supporter of Palestinian rights, said it was “disturbing beyond belief” that universities would “collaborate” with the arms industry to impose a crackdown. Three students were later disciplined after protesting BAE’s presence at a QMUL event.
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