Following the University of Glasgow’s increasing repression of student activism on campus during the last weeks, UOfG students have increasingly mobilised to demand that UofG divests from arms. This page will update on developments and GUJPS press releases regarding student protests.
April 7th 2025
The following transcript is an updated press release from GUJPS:
Following the disruption of talks at the University’s Offer holder open day by members of the GUJPS (Glasgow University Justice for Palestine Society) on the 1st of April, Neve McLean (she/her), a final year Sociology student, has been banned from campus. GUJPS disrupted the Welcome Talk, Engineering, Finance and Physics talks.
A member of GUJPS said,
‘The aim of the disruption was to educate the prospective students and their parents of the Universities involvement with the arms industry and how this is directly enabling the genocide of the Palestinian people. They cleverly left that out of their slides so we had to show up and fill in the gaps.’
Over 20 students were involved in the actions on the day however only one student has been targeted by Management. The next day, 10 minutes after leaving campus, McLean received an email from University management with a disciplinary letter attached from Professor Martin Hendry, Vice Principle and Clerk of the Senate. McLean told in the letter that following a “Risk Assessment” she ‘pose[s] a potential and substantial risk to the Wider University Community’. She is now banned from all parts of the University Campus. A campus ban is punishment usually reserved for those who have committed Gender Based Violence, not protestors exercising their democratic right. Her lecturers, including her dissertation supervisor, were explicitly told by management that they are not to meet with her off campus. Thus, leaving her to finish the final portions of her degree in complete isolation.
The isolation and suppression of students is an ongoing trend in academic institutions in the current political climate. This process of banning students was seen previously in the last month with Youth Demand activist Hannah Taylor (they/she) who had her ban lifted following a petition and rallies on campus. The University agreed to allow Taylor back on campus to complete their degree if they paid half the damages of the cleaning the JMS: £2660. Over the last two weeks, University Management has called police on campus four times. McLean has also been subject to an excessive amount of targeted aggression by Glasgow University’s the head of security. It is highlighted in a video on the GUJPS instagram, where they can be seen showing excessive levels of intimidation towards McLean.
McLean was first threatened with suspension in November by Management for being involved in Pro-Palestian action on campus and since has been directly targeted by campus security. In February, McLean showed up to a picket line by GUJPS at the Rankine Engineering building, uninvolved with the action. While standing on the other street in solidarity for a short while, McLean recalls being surrounded by a group of male security using her first name and saying ‘they’ve been waiting’ for her and asking what she ‘was doing that day’.
A member of GUJPS who participated in the Offers Day action said,
‘The University is no different from all the others. They don’t want to hear us as it forces them to acknowledge their shame in their enabling of the ongoing genocide of the palestian people. We always read headlines of the extreme repression of the student intifada, meaning uprising in arabic, in America and think not here right? Yeah well, clearly they aren’t that different. To be left alone to finish your dissertation and essays, disgusting. Management should just divest and not ban students’.
The UCU, University and College Union, have been in full solidarity with McLean and with all of the activism that has taken part on campus by GUJPS.
On the UCU website they posted a “Solidarity letter with student protesters” stating,
‘We are writing to voice our support for peaceful protests in solidarity with Palestine at the University of Glasgow, whose Senior Management and Court has chosen to set itself up in opposition to the clear, longstanding will of its students and staff by choosing to continue to invest in and profit from the arms trade.
Such deliberate acts by the governing body of the university will inevitably inflame tensions at such a difficult time… We therefore wish to convey our deep concern regarding the punitive interim measures taken against students recently engaged in protest actions on campus (by banning them from campus, interfering with their ability to study). We urge that you revoke them and refrain from further disciplinary action against students engaged in peaceful protest on campus.’
In a press release from GUJPS, Neve McLean said,
‘The University’s decision to ban me has been extremely frustrating, but ultimately unsurprising. They would rather put time and resources into punitive measures instead of meaningfully engaging with the large population of staff and students at this University who believe an institution of education has no business investing in weapons. In the final stages of my degree I have been banned from accessing any University facilities. Senior management should be ashamed of themselves. The student intifada on campus fighting for divestment should be very proud of themselves, clearly the pressure is working.’
GUJPS has begun a letter campaign demanding for McLean’s ban to be lifted. The link can be found on their instagram @gu_jps.
END of press release transcript
March 27th, 2025
At 5pm today, the SRC referendum ended and the results were published online:
Referendum Outcome: The motion passed with 89.3% of votes in favour – 8,668 students voted YES to divestment. 9,706 students cast their votes – 19.2% of those eligible.
Turnout: 9,706 students (19.2% of those eligible)
| Option | Number | % |
| Yes | 8,668 | 89.3% |
| No | 1,038 | 10.7% |
On their Instagram, the SRC stated that ‘this turnout is higher than any SRC election in living memory,and higher even tha[n] the extremely high turnout for the Rector Election 2024. This turnout is more than 5x the students who participated in the SRI Consultation from the University (1,897 students).
March 26th, 2025
Today, the student vote for divestment opened, with the SRC referendum on whether the University should stop investing in companies that earn more than 10% of their revenue from the arms and defence industry.
GUM calls for The University of Glasgow to divest from the arms trade. UofG has substantial investments in arms, profiting directly from sales that fuel displacement, humanitarian crises, war and genocide. This directly contradicts its commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
By endorsing the arms trade, through companies such as BAE, the UofG is complicit in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Palestine. Investment in arms can never be ethical.
Students at UofG have been campaigning for divestment for years now, yet the University refuses to listen.
Voting is open until 5pm 27th March on the SRC app and website.
Now is the time to have your voice heard. Every vote counts.
March 24th, 2025
Press release from GUJPS:
This Monday 200 students attended a demonstration outside the Glasgow University library in support of the 5 students on the 6th day of hunger strike. The group claims that they have had no acknowledgement from University in regards to their strike, including no formal offers of medical support.
In a speech delivered to the crowd, one of strikers said:
“We are left with no choice but to continue to escalate to highlight the urgency of divestment. The equivalent of six nuclear bombs have been dropped on Gaza, a strip that is only 25 miles long and 15 miles wide. Israel has bombed every single hospital, they have bombed every single university, they have left nothing untouched. This is what Glasgow University invests in.”
They continued:
After 6 days the students are feeling stronger than ever. While we hunger strike here by choice, we continue to remember the 2.2 million in Gaza that have been forced to starve through 15 months of genocide and now for the past 2 weeks since Israel terminated the so called “ceasefire agreement” Palestinians are once again starving to death.
End of press release transcript
March 23rd, 2025
Today is day 5 of the student hunger strike, in the week leading up to the SRC divestment referendum. Captioning their latest video statement on Instagram, GUJPS said:
“Management what are you doing? For 5 days your students have put their lives on the line in a desperate effort to get you to respond to their demand and yet you’ve said nothing?! Your students have not ate in FIVE days. To once again restate – the key demand is the unconditional and immediate divestment of the £6.8 million invested in arms companies, so that Glasgow University is no longer complicit in Genocide. The blood of innocent Palestinian men, woman and children is being spilled from your hands. Shame on you.”
According to GUJPS, University of Glasgow management have not responded or acknowledged their hunger strike.
March 22nd, 2025
Taking to Instagram, a spokesperson from GUJPS today stated:
“Today is day four of our student hunger strike at the University of Glasgow, which demands urgent divestment from arms and a court call for an emergency meeting to vote to immediately and unconditionally divest from arms companies for which they hold £6.8 million. We have still not received a single ounce of acknowledgement or any response from management nor have we received any form of medical support. The negligence and lack of response from management to both the hunger strike and our demands emphasises the apathy they have towards their students. For a university that prides itself on taking such good care of their students, they should be ashamed of themselves. Your students putting their lives on the line. How dare you sit idly by while your students are putting their lives and their health on the line. Our motivation is not diminished. How dare you continue to turn a blind eye to the genocide that you are complicit in. Your money is covered in the blood of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. What more do we have to do to make you hear us? It has been over 532 days of genocide in Gaza. How dare this university continue to look away? How dare they continue to invest in genocide? How dare they refuse to acknowledge their own students on hunger strike? We will not stop. We will not rest. Free free Palestine!”
March 21st, 2025
Transcript of GUJPS press release:
The total number of students on hunger strike has increased to 9, with 2 new activists joining the group today. The students are calling for the University to commit to divesting £6.8m worth of shares they currently hold in arms companies.
This Friday students held a demonstration in the Advanced Research Centre (ARC) at the University of Glasgow to highlight the institution’s research ties with arms companies like the Thales. The demonstration comes on the third day of the student hunger strike which has grown in numbers to a total of 9 students. The group claims that the university has so far ignored their protest, including failing to offer them any medical support.
The hunger strikers are calling for the university to make a commitment to divesting their £6.8m worth of shares which they currently hold with arms companies. They argue the University’s investments in arms companies such as BAE Systems make it complicit in war crimes, including the genocide in Palestine where Glasgow University alumnus Dima Alhajand her six-month old baby were killed.
The demonstrators are part of the student activist group Glasgow University Justice for Palestine Society (GUJPS). They have been calling for Glasgow University to sever all ties with arms companies and enforce an academic boycott on the state of Israel.
In a speech delivered at the Advanced Research Centre this afternoon, one of the strikers said:
“The hunger strikers are forcing the university to face up to the reality of the death and misery that they are directly responsible for. If the university will ignore the forced starvation of Palestinians in Gaza then we will bring that reality to their doorstep.
There are now nine students on hunger strike. Nine students are putting their lives on the line to demand that this university do what is right, and what the staff and student body that they claim to represent overwhelmingly desires.”
Crackdown on Student Protest
On Wednesday around 20 students from GUJPS occupied the Charles Wilson Building to demand the university sever ties with the arms industry. The University responded by calling police to campus, who blocked the entrance to the building, prevented food and water from reaching those inside and threatened to arrest the students involved.
Commenting on these events, one of the student activists said:
“The police have been called onto campus everyday for the past three days. This represents a dramatic escalation in how our University manages student protests and indicates their refusal to engage with their students and staff on the vital issue of divestment. Furthermore, their lack of communication with students on hunger strike shows their lack of care for the safety and welfare of students.”
Glasgow University student Hannah Taylor, has been banned from campus following a non-violent protest with Youth Demand, where they sprayed water soluble paint over a University Building. This banning order means that they are unable to attend their lectures and may fail their degree before their disciplinary hearing. The University Rector and Trauma Surgeon described the decision as “disproportionate and authoritarian” and called for the ban to be reversed.
Students in the UK are increasingly facing disciplinary action from their universities for engaging in peaceful pro-palestinian activism. Gina Romero, the United Nations special rapporteur for freedom of peaceful assembly, has condemned the “deeply disturbing situation” across UK campuses, as she accused universities of taking “deliberate actions to curtail” their students’ rights.
University ignores student vote on divestment:
Recent protests at the University led them to launch a consultation on their Socially Responsible Investment Policy (SRI) which was open to all students and staff. The results of the consultation showed that 70% of respondents believed that the University should always exclude investments in defence firms. Despite these results last semester the University court voted for a new Socially Responsible Investment Policy which did not include divestment from arms companies. This decision was criticised by the Student Representative Council (SRC) who are the main voice for students on campus.
Investments and Research Partnerships:
As of 2023 Glasgow University held investments of over £6.8 million in 26 Arms Companies, including stocks in RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies), Lockheed Martin, and BAE Systems. BAE systems manufactures components for the F-35 fighter jet. The F-35 is sold to Israel and has been linked to ‘megabomb’ attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians in Gaza.
In January 2024, a ‘Demilitarise Education’ FOI request showed that there were 23 active grants totalling at least £60,343,849 at the University of Glasgow which were in partnership with—or in a few cases, directly funded by—10 defence companies. These grants covered research grants, studentships, and research centres, and were held across four schools at the University of Glasgow including Engineering and Physics & Astronomy.
One of the key research funders at Glasgow University is Thales who co-produce the Watchkeeper drone with Elbit Systems, which is Israel’s largest arms producer. The Watchkeeper drone is modelled on the Elbit made-Hermes drone which has been used extensively in Gaza. Elbit Systems advertise the Hermes drone as ‘field tested’ on Palestinians.
End of press release transcript
March 20th, 2025
Below is a statement from a representative of GUJPS:
“Today is day two of our student hunger strike at the University of Glasgow to demand urgent divestment from Israel, and the court to call for an emergency meeting to vote for immediate and unconditional divestment from the arms companies in which they hold £6.8 million.
Due to the disgusting response from management yesterday, 4 new students have joined the hunger strike today, making a total of seven students of Glasgow University now taking part. Yesterday, student activists occupied the Charles Wilson building reclaiming it as Dar Ahmad Manasra. The university immediately responded heavily with security. David Duncan once again refused to come and speak to us in person like the coward he is and instead demanded that we end our action just to leave and have a meeting with him. We have had multiple meetings with him that have gone nowhere and we continuously go round in circles with management never following through on their promises.
Police then showed up and quickly escalated, they demanded entrance to the building and surveyed the space. They then threatened us with arrest…
Amongst police escalation, university security proudly stated their intent to ‘secure’ the building. I.e., comfortably bolt shut the main door regardless of the presence of students inside. In their reaction, the university shows no respect for their students’ safety or the magnitude of the cause they are fighting for.
We are here today because we have been left with no other choice as, once again, the university continues to act in bad faith.
In response, seven students have now put their lives on the line.
Regardless of the magnitude of yesterday’s events, and the mass mobilisation of students in support, we still await a response from the university regarding our hunger strike. Despite being explicitly detailed in press releases, banners outside the Dar Ahmad Manasra, and in the subject of email communications with management, the students’ sacrificial escalation has not even been acknowledged. As an academic institution that its students pay thousands of pounds to yearly, the university adopts a duty of care towards them. This duty of care, as repeatedly shown, is not being exercised.
Today, we demand recognition of the forced starvation inflicted on Palestinians by the Zionist entity. Those of us here today hold the privilege to choose whether we restrict ourselves from food in a last resort of protest against our university’s ignorance to humanity and student opinion, however millions in Palestine do not. The university has the choice to end its complicity in the barbarity we see daily on our phones, we are here once again to pressure for the enactment of that choice.
In a final message to management: Have shame that you neglect the value of human life, the opinions of your students, and the health of the current hunger strikers.
We will not give up and cower to a management that continues to threaten their students for standing up against genocide. We mean it when we say we will not stop we will not rest! Free Free Palestine!”
End of statement
March 19th, 2025
This morning, 3 students at Glasgow University have announced they are beginning a hunger strike to increase pressure on the University to sever ties with the arms industry and Israel. The announcement comes from inside the student-led occupation of the Charles Wilson Building, renamed the ‘Dar Ahmad Manasra’.
The students are part of ‘Glasgow University Justice for Palestine Society’ (GUJPS), a student activist group that has been coordinating the divestment campaign.
A student taking part in the hunger strike said:
‘The university has shown that it is happy to be complicit in the death and destruction of thousands of Palestinian lives, so we have decided to bring the implications of their decisions to their doorstep’.
Another student involved in the strike said:
‘We have tried every single other avenue and now we are left with this extreme form of protest. We will continue to show our solidarity with the Palestinian people, especially while our university continues to fund genocide and ethnic extermination. Even during the so-called ceasefire agreement, Israel banned aid and food from entering Gaza. What we are going through is a choice, we have chosen to hunger strike. Whereas the children in Gaza have no choice but to endure their forced starvation’
