LONDON – British universities must take stronger action to protect Jewish students, the government said on Saturday, after a deadly attack on a synagogue in northern England and amid concerns over antisemitism on campuses.
Young people must be equipped to spot and challenge misinformation online, the government said, urging universities to use every tool available to confront hate and division.
“One instance of antisemitic abuse is one too many,” the UK’s education minister, Bridget Phillipson, said in a statement.
“So I’m clear: the buck stops with universities when it comes to ridding their campuses of hate – and they have my full backing to use their powers to do so.”
On October 2, a British man of Syrian descent drove a car into pedestrians and then began stabbing several people on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, outside Manchester’s Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue. Two men died in the attack, one of them accidentally shot by police as he barricaded a door to prevent the terrorist entering the synagogue.
In the aftermath, Phillipson wrote to university vice-chancellors urging “practical and proportionate steps” to ensure campuses remain safe spaces. New rules introduced in August require institutions to have clear policies and reporting mechanisms to address harassment of all kinds.
British Secretary of State for Education, Minister for Women and Equalities Bridget Phillipson departs a cabinet meeting at Downing Street, in London, June 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
A report presented to the House of Lords by StandWithUs UK in May showed that Jewish students in UK universities have faced unprecedented rates of antisemitism, including threats, intimidation, and attacks since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught on Israel.
More broadly, Britain reported its second-worst year in modern times for antisemitism last year, with more than 3,500 incidents recorded, the Community Security Trust, which provides security to Jewish organizations across the country, said earlier this year.
Data from Britain’s interior ministry on Thursday showed Jews suffered the highest rate of religious hate crimes in England and Wales between March of 2024 and March of 2025.
The increased antisemitism on UK university campuses has flourished alongside increased anti-Israel sentiments and is part of a phenomenon seen at institutions worldwide amid tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza over the last two years.
Students gather around tents at an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protest camp at Kings College at Cambridge University in Cambridge, eastern England on May 7, 2024 (HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP)
Universities across the US and Europe have been the scenes of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests and encampments, with demonstrators even taking over campus buildings in some places.
Many have featured calls for “intifada” and declarations of “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” seen by many as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state.
The Trump administration has threatened to cut federal funds to US universities over campus pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests, saying universities allowed displays of antisemitism.
Zev Stub contributed to this report.
