General Meeting – 12th May 2026

Motion against UCL’s surveillance of students and staff

This branch notes:

  • A joint investigation by Al Jazeera and Liberty Investigates has found that twelve British universities, including UCL, paid a total of £443,943 between Jan 2022 and March 2025 to security firm Horus to collect data on pro-Palestine students and staff.
  • Horus monitored social media feeds of student and staff and conducted secret counter-terror threat assessments that it submitted to universities
  • UCL has refused to respond to requests for comment by the investigators
  • UCL has a history of repression of the Palestine movement, including the most recent arrest of PhD student and UCU member Jamie Bradshaw, which this branch condemned
  • Jo Grady has stated it is ‘shameful’ that universities have ‘wasted hundreds of thousands of pounds spying on their own students’.

This branch believes:

  • Paying a security firm run by former military intelligence to surveil students and staff is a blatant infringement of UCL’s commitment to foster ‘a culture of trust and mutual accountability’
  • This is an outrageous misuse of funds that could’ve been used to support UCL’s services and academic community
  • UCL’s refusal to respond shows it has no interest in holding itself accountable to those affected 
  • This once again sets a dangerous precedent for how dissent and protest at UCL may be handled by university leadership and management

This branch resolves to:

  • Condemn UCL’s use of security firms to monitor student and staff protesters, whether for Palestine or other causes
  • Demand that UCL leadership respond to these findings and disclose exactly how much UCL has paid to Horus cumulatively
  • Demand that UCL is transparent about any current and future partnerships with security firms to monitor students and staff, and that UCU is consulted before any such partnerships proceed
  • Ensure UCL has ended all payment to Horus or other security firms and has stopped gathering data on students and staff exercising their freedom of speech to stand up against genocide

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