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Militarisation of Higher Education

Educational resources produced by UCU (UoN branch) and Nottingham Camp for the Liberation of Palestine

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What is militarisation?

  • ‘Militarisation‘ describes a process of increasing entanglement between institutions (such as universities), and militaries / the arms industry.
  • The global arms industry ($100bn estimated annual value) is responsible for the manufacture and sale/transfer of weaponry and other military, ‘security’, and policing equipment.
  • British universities play important role in this industry; conversely, military connections shape our universities’ research, teaching, and graduate career options.
    • e.g. Oxford University – report in 2019 revealed that nearly 40% of £420m in science council grants paired with military-related bodies (Rossdale, 2023).
  • To ‘demilitarise’ means to resist, undo, and transform these processes, to reimagine education beyond militarised imperatives.

Educational resources produced by UCU (UoN branch) and Nottingham Camp for the Liberation of Palestine

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Case study: Nottingham

  • 2021 – UoN announces strategic partnership with BAE systems, whose portfolio includes tanks, nuclear missile sumarines, surveillance systems – and notoriously helps make the F35 jet, integral to Israel’s occupation and bombardment of Palestine.
  • BAE had previously been referred to the ICC [International Criminal Court] for its central role in the Saudi bombardment of Yemen (2015-22), which killed tens of thousands (Rossdale, 2023).
  • 2024 – staff-student research report finds that:
    • ‘£16,974,399.98 of the University’s equities in FY [Financial Year] 23/24 were held in 53 holdings in 28 companies that are either conducting or enabling crimes against the Palestinian people (including through supporting illegal Israeli settlements; and/or supporting the Israeli military; and/or sustaining apartheid); and/or financing crimes against the Palestinian people and/or financing the arms trade.’ (NCLP, p. 42)
  • Student-led campaigns have exposed and challenged these complicities.

Educational resources produced by UCU (UoN branch) and Nottingham Camp for the Liberation of Palestine

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Militarisation in context

  • While ‘militarisation’ might imply a historical shift from a non-militarised past to a militarised present/future, this is misleading.
  • Longer histories of ‘Military-Industrial-Academic Complex’ (CAAT 2024, p. 2):
    • British universities have always been close to military power and complicit in imperialism, e.g. Researchers from Imperial College developed chemical weapons during WW1; many universities built from profits of colonialism and slavery.
  • Current context: neoliberal marketisation and austerity; need to attract funding from both government and private industry shapes the priorities of departments and institutions
    • In STEM subjects, student projects and placements routinely involve working with arms companies and other ‘industry partners’ directly implicated in human rights abuses.
    • Social studies and humanities departments more likely to have teaching relationships with armed forces, e.g. Plymouth, Portsmouth and KCL contribute to military training programmes (Rossdale 2023).
  • ‘Greenwashing’: universities may emphasise civiian applications and green credentials of ‘dual-use’ technologies (i.e. those with both military and non-military uses) and ‘militarised environmental technologies’ (METs) to protect public image (CAAT 2024, p. 6).

Educational resources produced by UCU (UoN branch) and Nottingham Camp for the Liberation of Palestine

‘Never again!’

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Discuss

  1. What does complicity mean to you?
  2. ‘Of the largest 50 arms manufacturers in the world, UoN partners with at least 13.’ (p. 55) How does learning about these kinds of entanglements make you feel as a University of Nottingham student? Do you think the university is transparent enough about its partnerships and investments?
  3. Can you think of other ways educational institutions are militarised?
  4. ‘The double standard between the approaches that the University of Nottingham has taken with regards to Ukraine and Palestine is evident both in the support they provide for students [e.g. scholarships] and their investments in companies, institutions and organisations that continue to support the apartheid regime of Israel and enable the genocide that is being committed by the settler-colonial state of Israel.’ (p. 38) What do you think of these double standards?
  5. What ways of challenging and resisting militarisation can you think of?

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Educational resources produced by UCU (UoN branch) and Nottingham Camp for the Liberation of Palestine

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Activity

  • In small groups, compare and contrast the following statements:
    • ‘Formalising our strategic partnership [with BAE] will allow us to translate the latest research results into industrial applications, develop new technologies and deliver major societal, environmental and economic impact’ (Director of the Institute for Advanced Manufacturing at Nottingham, 2021)
    • ‘By partnering with defence contractors like BAE Systems and Boeing, the University can sell small components developed in collaboration, often intended for military applications, without retaining oversight of their end use.’ (NCLP 2024, p. 50)
  • How can the concepts of militarisation, demilitarisation and greenwashing help us to understand and evaluate these statements?
  • Make a poster to display your group’s ideas.

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Educational resources produced by UCU (UoN branch) and Nottingham Camp for the Liberation of Palestine

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Learn more

Educational resources produced by UCU (UoN branch) and Nottingham Camp for the Liberation of Palestine