Cambridge University to consider divesting from arms industry amid Gaza protests
Students wave Palestinian flags during a protest at Cambridge University on 7 May 2024
Imran Mulla reports in Middle East Eye on 21 October 2025:
The University of Cambridge has announced it will divest from companies involved in producing “controversial weapons”, and will vote next month on whether to divest from all arms companies following the publication of a landmark report.
Its announcement comes after years of student pro-Palestine protests and follows one of the university’s largest colleges, King’s College, deciding it would divest from the arms industry and companies complicit in “the occupation of Ukraine and Palestinian territories”.
The report, which followed a year-long review into the university’s links to the arms industry, was approved unanimously by the University Council on Monday.
It called for the university’s £4.2bn ($5.62bn) endowment fund to divest from “any company which manufactures weapons illegal under UK law, even if those weapons are legal elsewhere”, including chemical and biological weapons and cluster munitions.
Cambridge’s university council has adopted this as policy. Significantly, it is also set to decide whether to divest from all arms manufacturers in a meeting on 20 November.
There is currently considerable secrecy surrounding Cambridge’s investments.
The report, published on Monday, said: “We acknowledge the commercial importance of confidentiality, but the fact that the members of the Working Group do not know the extent of the University’s investments in companies which manufacture weapons has made the formulation of our recommendations significantly more difficult.
“The confidentiality relating to the investments and consequent lack of transparency has undoubtedly contributed to a suspicion in parts of the wider University that the University’s investments in [its endowment fund] are much more extensive as regards companies which manufacture weapons than appears to be the case.”
‘Forced reckoning’
The report put forward three options for the council, one of which is to set a timeline for completely divesting. Another option is to make no changes and a third is to set a one percent cap on investments in conventional weapons.