A SCOTTISH university has been ranked among the worst in the UK for the repression of Palestine solidarity amid the genocide in Gaza.
The UK University Repression League Table 2025, released last week by Social Innovators for Justice (SI4J), ranks 139 universities based on two categories:
- Crackdown on activism: where students or staff have faced suspensions, disciplinary warnings, legal threats or protest bans for expressing support for Gaza or criticising Israel’s actions.
- Complicity: where institutions hold investments in or research partnerships with arms companies or other firms supplying weapons, surveillance tools, or infrastructure used in military attacks, including Israel’s assault on Gaza.
The most severe cases, according to the ranking, include University College London (which received a repression score of 100%), Queen Mary University of London (92.5%), University of Bristol (86.3%), and the London School of Economics (78.9%).
In terms of universities in Scotland, Glasgow University tops the list – coming in at seventh worst in the UK overall and 68.8%. It has continued investing in arms firms supplying Israel despite the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Strathclyde University is 20th with 52.5% while the University of St Andrews is 27th on 46.3%.
A full list of the rankings and methodology can be found here.
“This is a wake-up call,” said Ariana Alexander-Sefre, founder of SI4J and an entrepreneur.
“Universities are supposed to be spaces for critical thinking and moral leadership, not places where students are criminalised for opposing genocide or where education is funded by weapons manufacturers. What kind of future are these institutions preparing us for? Are they spaces for critical thought and moral courage, or are they censors for corporate and political interests?”
