One in five UK university students would be reluctant to share their house with a Jew – and some would never do so, according to a shock new poll.
The finding comes in a report from the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) as evidence of how antisemitism “has become normalised on our campuses”, particularly amid the heated climate of pro-Palestine protests.
The nationwide poll of British students also reveals that:
1 in 4 don’t care if Jewish students feel unable to be open about their identity;
1 in 6 claim that glorifying October 7 should be protected as free speech;
1 in 10 say that Holocaust denial or minimisation is not antisemitic.
Traumatised Jewish students in the report have provided testimony of their experience of hate, often at leading universities.
One female student said her peers were told not to be friends with her as a “Zionist”. Another undergraduate was attacked in a nightclub by assailants who recognised him from when he debated with protesters at a Gaza encampment. And an anti-Israel student social media account celebrated October 7 as a “bold armed offensive”.
The landmark report, entitled “Time For Change”, makes significant recommendations for the authorities. These include greater accountability for universities in response to hate crime, and a national counter-extremism strategy to combat radicalisation.
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Conservative peer and JC columnist Lord Finkelstein said universities were “failing students” by not confronting antisemitism more robustly. In the foreword to the report, he warns discrimination against Jews was “about civilisation, about the culture of liberal democracy and the country itself”.
He said: “We are asking universities to act to protect themselves, to ensure that they are all they can be and all they should be. We are asking them to act in order to prevent them from suffering physical and moral collapse.”
Baroness Berger said what she called a “vital” report demonstrated a failure to learn from the past, citing her own experience of antisemitism on campus as a student. The Labour peer asked: “What will British campuses feel like for Jewish students when my own children, now aged just six and eight, reach university age?”
In the poll, 20 per cent of respondents said they would prefer not to share accommodation with Jewish peers or would never do so. In one case cited in the report, a group of non-Jewish students advertising for a new flatmate posted online that they had one stipulation: “No Zios in the flat”.
More than a quarter of students (26 per cent) said they knew of, or had personally experienced, friendships with Jewish peers become strained or distant, rising to 36 per cent at Russell Group universities.
Attitudes recorded in the survey suggest a tolerance for antisemitism among students. One in ten said denying or downplaying the Holocaust was not antisemitic, while 16 per cent believed that glorifying the October 7 attacks by Hamas should be protected as free speech.
A quarter of students said they did not care if Jewish students felt unable to be open about their identity, 26 per cent said calls for “Zionists” to be removed from campus were not antisemitic, and 24 per cent said claims that Zionists control the media or government were not antisemitic.
The report spotlights the effect of Gaza protests on Jews on campus.
Among students who have witnessed antisemitism, one in four said it occurred during a demonstration, and of those who regularly see Israel-Palestine protests, 39 per cent said intimidation and harassment of Jewish students occurs “very” or “fairly” often.
Almost half of students (47 per cent) said they had seen slogans or chants directly justifying the October 7 attacks – a figure that rose to 77 per cent among those who regularly encounter Israel-Palestine protests on campus.
The survey found that half of students feel social pressure to hold certain views on the conflict, and a third feel unsafe engaging in political debates around the topic.
Students at universities that are members of the Russell Group – which includes Oxford and Cambridge – were more likely to say the atmosphere was intimidating and that they felt unsafe discussing politics.
The majority of students (61 per cent) found campus conversations about Israel and Palestine “intimidating or toxic”.
At Russell Group universities, that rose to 79 per cent, with 51 per cent reporting they do not feel safe to participate in political discussions.
Respondents widely viewed university protests as disruptive, with 65 per cent saying demonstrations had interfered with their learning.
One student at Queen Mary University of London said a biology exam was disrupted by “chants calling for the fall of Israel, to globalise the intifada, and praising the terrorists of October 7 … screamed through a megaphone”.
Students in the report revealed their experiences of university antisemitism.
A third year at Exeter said a girl at a party was telling peers to not be friends with the Jewish student “because I am a Zionist”.
The student said: “She knew nothing about me but told me to ‘f*** off’ with a whole audience of students watching... I tried to explain that I wanted to have a respectful conversation with her, but she refused, saying she doesn’t talk to Zionists.”
The student went home and cried after she was accused of supporting the “genocide of children”.
In Bristol, a Jewish Society committee member said he was assaulted in a nightclub by people who recognised him from when he talked to protesters at a pro-Palestinian encampment.
His shirt was ripped, his back cut, and a drink was thrown in his face.
The report warned that the “campus Overton window” of acceptable political discourse has shifted to include support for the Hamas atrocities. One web account seemingly run by Leeds students, called Leeds Students Against Apartheid Coalition (LSAAC), shared posts on October 7 last year stating that the anniversary “honours the Palestinian resistance” and calling the attacks a “bold armed offensive”. It quoted Hamas spokesman, Abu Obeida, describing Gaza as “the greatest military school in contemporary history” and praised as “legend” how the “Qassam Shadow Unit” concealed Israeli hostages, also reposting the celebratory description of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s death, saying he “heroically fell in battle”.
In May 2025, when two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead in Washington DC, LSAAC suggested this was a “logical” escalation against “occupation representatives”.
LSAAC was among 18 student societies last year backing a failed legal application for Hamas to be deproscribed.
In Scotland, an anonymous student network, the Glasgow University Justice for Palestine Society (GUJPS), published a magazine, The Gaza Guardian, of which hundreds of copies distributed on campus called on students to “join the student intifada” and spoke the “necessity of armed resistance”.
On the October 7 anniversary, GUJPS advertised a protest to “honour our resistance” and celebrate “the glorious Al-Aqsa Flood”.
It demanded the “banning of all Zionists from campus”.
This extremist rhetoric is spread by a network of anonymous student groups operating outside students’ union structures to avoid disciplinary action, the report explains.
The report sets out six recommendations intended to “bring about real change”, including greater accountability for universities in their response to hate crime and stronger oversight of students’ unions’ handling of antisemitism.
UJS president Louis Danker called on universities to “heed our call for change”.
He said Britain’s Jewish students would not accept “another two and a half years of concerned sentiment and piecemeal progress.”
The poll of 1,000 students across 170 higher education institutions was conducted by research firm JL Partners between January 26 and February 4.
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