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The Department of Education released a statement last week, explaining that the Government will “temporarily disengage” with the National Union of Students (NUS) in response to a repeated allegations of antisemitism.
The NUS will be removed from all Department of Education (DfE) groups and will be replaced with alternative student representation – the DfE has asked similar student bodies such as the Office for Students to take similar action. As well as this, the press release also states that the NUS will not receive any government funding.
The DfE statement explained that the allegations of “systemic antisemitism within the organisation” have spanned several years and are well documented, but until now have yet to be properly addressed, which “prompted a feeling of insecurity amongst Jewish students across the country”. The government’s decision comes as the Community Security Trust (CST), the charity that protects British Jews from antisemitism and related threats, reported that the number of incidents reported by Jewish students and staff on university campuses “hit record levels” last year, and have continued in 2022.
Although the government’s action will be kept under review, Universities Minister Michelle Donelan MP said that the “message could not be simpler. We need decisive and effective action in response to these repeated allegations of antisemitic behaviour”. She has also written to Civica Election Services, the electoral body which oversaw the recent NUS election for the NUS President, asking that it investigate the election. The request comes after it was reported that the newly-elected NUS President has previously liked & engaged with social media posts that oppose the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which goes against Rule 8 of the NUS’s “core rules”, which states that all electoral candidates “must have a commitment to anti-racism… and antisemitism as per the IHRA definition”.
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi MP said he is “extremely concerned” to hear of so many alleged antisemitic incidents occurring within the NUS and reiterated that “antisemitism has no place in our society and we will stamp it out, wherever it occurs”. The Cabinet Minister added that “Jewish students need to have confidence that this is a body that represents them, and we need to be sure that the student bodies that we engage with are speaking fairly for all students, which is why we are disengaging with the NUS until the issues have been addressed”.
The Higher and Further Education Minister said she felt “horrified” that Jewish students felt “ostracised” by an organisation who should be “an advocate of equality for all students”. She expressed that the DfE did not take the decision to temporarily disengage with the NUS lightly, but they “are treating these allegations with the utmost seriousness” as they “have been clear that antisemitism must be stamped out of the sector”.
The governmental action builds on a series of interventions taken by the Department of Education to tackle antisemitism on campus. Most recently, in February the Education Secretary and the Universities Minister hosted a virtual antisemitism summit for vice chancellors, university representatives and Jewish rights groups to discuss measures and commitments that can be taken to ensure Jewish students and staff feel safe in higher education. There is also an ongoing push to encourage more higher education providers to sign up to the IHRA definition of antisemitism which tripled in number from 2020-2021.
