A National Union of Students’ (NUS) campaign has become a “vehicle for extremist interests”, a report has warned. The “Students not Suspects” campaign, which has been part of NUS policy since 2015, encourages universities to rally against the Government’s flagship counter-radicalisation policy Prevent. But according to the Henry Jackson Society, a counter-extremism think tank, the […]
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Challenging Prevent at UCL
On Wednesday 30th September, Student Rights attended an event at University College London (UCL) entitled ‘Challenging Prevent: Defending our universities, communities and civil liberties’. The event formed part of the NUS’ launch of a Prevent helpline, whose purpose according to leaflets distributed at the event is to “support students and student union officers” and fight […]
Continue readingStudents plan NUS disaffiliation over presidential vote (Update: Students at more universities raise
Update 22/04/2016: Individual members from student societies across the political spectrum at the University of York (UoY), including the “Labour Club, the York Tories, the UoY Lib Dems, York UKIP, York Greens, PalSoc, York Liberty and York Union”, have announced that they will be working together to write a motion demanding York University Student Union […]
Continue readingNUS candidate faces further scrutiny ahead of hustings
The National Union of Students’ (NUS) conference kicks off in Brighton today, with the accompanying electoral processes dogged by antisemitism allegations against Malia Bouattia, who is running for NUS President. On Thursday, Student Rights detailed how a number of student Jewish Society members had raised questions about Bouattia’s ability to represent them, as well as […]
Continue readingFOSIS work with MEND on Islamophobia campaign
Islamophobia Awareness Month (IAM) aims to raise awareness of anti-Muslim hate crime across the UK. Bigotry towards Muslims remains a problem at UK universities, and groups like the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) are right to highlight this serious issue. Student Rights has logged a number of anti-Muslim incidents at universities in the past, […]
Continue readingMoazzam Begg to speak at NUS-organised event tour (Update: NUS statement)
UPDATE 04/09/2015: An NUS statement released to the Daily Mail has claimed that: “The events are being run as a coalitions with a number of other organisations, we are a large organisation and represent a wide diversity of views, some of our officers with different views have chosen to work with the coalition”. In July, […]
Continue readingHeriot-Watt blog highlights student misperceptions
In July, Student Rights’ new report ‘Preventing Prevent? Challenges to Counter-Radicalisation Policy on Campus’ highlighted how misunderstandings were driving student opposition to the Prevent strategy. A blog posted over the weekend by Heriot-Watt University Student Union (HWUSU) demonstrates many of these fallacies, and shows the extent to which students have failed to understand the policy […]
Continue readingOpen letter shows concerns about student campaign against Prevent
Last week saw an open letter published in the Independent which targeted the UK’s counter-radicalisation strategy, Prevent, and called for it to be scrapped. Signed by over 40 senior National Union of Students (NUS) and individual student union officers, the letter damned the policy as one which: “…reinforces an ‘us’ and ‘them’ view of the […]
Continue readingExtreme events continue on campuses
The identification of former University of Westminster student Mohammed Emwazi as the Islamic State executioner ‘Jihadi John’ has led to increased scrutiny on the issue of campus extremism. With Haitham Al-Haddad due to speak at the university the same day Emwazi was unmasked, concern over extremists being invited to address students has been at the […]
Continue readingLSE event exposes an inability to challenge extremism
Last Tuesday an event at the London School of Economics (LSE) saw a speaker allegedly glorify terrorist violence, while another claimed Israelis use rape as a weapon against Palestinians. Rana Baker, a writer for Electronic Intifada, was reported to have called the hijacking of aircraft by Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) member […]
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