Universities providing 'recruiting ground' for terror – report

Lecturers are told to look out for impressionable students who could fall under the influence of extremists and radical preachers on campus.

The report details cases including students watching bomb-making videos on the internet in a college library and using prayer rooms for radical meetings.

The Department for Education has set out guidance urging university staff to be ready to contact the police if they fear that students have been "groomed" by extremists.

Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell said the guidance was not about targeting Muslims.

But he continued: "Violent extremism in the name of Islam is a real, credible and sustained threat to the UK.

"There is evidence of serious, but not widespread, Islamist extremist activity in higher education institutions."

The report says that universities are particularly vulnerable to extremist Islamic groups.

"Universities and colleges can provide a recruiting ground for extremists of all forms, and particularly those that target young people," it said.

"Student communities provide an opportunity for extremist individuals to form new networks, and extend existing ones."

Some students may "quite rightly" want to explore wider issues of their faith - but then fall into the wrong company, the report says. Others may be "actively looking for extremist individuals with whom to associate".

And some students who may be new to a university might be "vulnerable to 'grooming' by individuals with their own agenda as they search for friends and social groups".

Universities are also at risk because "ethnically segregated communities are increasingly common on campus".

Retreating into separate communities "can exacerbate extremism", the report warns. The Department for Education guidance, coming after talks with lecturers, government experts and police, lists real-life cases and how similar scenarios should be handled in future.

In one case, college library staff reported that a student approached them with concerns over images she saw fellow students viewing in a computer room.

"She reported that two males were looking at some kind of home-made images of other men dressed in military and civilian clothing, holding guns," the report said.

"The two men were joined by two others and she could see that they were watching shots being fired and explosions on the computer.

"The images then appeared to show somebody making a home made explosive device."

Another group of students told their personal tutor that they were concerned about a speaker who had been asked to address a student society.

They thought he was "someone who is using extremist language in the name of Islam, who has made comments in the media that acts of terrorism against British citizens are justified".

The guidance says if the speaker had made such comments, the university "should consider excluding him from speaking on the campus".

The police want universities to tell them about any concerns they have over individual students, the report says.

"The police are seeking to promote a position whereby higher education providers have the confidence to share concerns about emerging (or existing) instances of violent extremism on campus with them," the guidance said.

"Equally, it is important for the police (and wider community) to have confidence that a local higher education institution can recognise if it has a problem and ask for help."

The guidance says that vice-chancellors should ask themselves whether staff could "identify violent extremist behaviour" and would be confident enough to report it.

"Does the higher education provider have the processes in place, and the willingness, to get that information to the police?"

Faisal Hanjra, of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS), has criticised the Government for not asking Muslim students about the guidelines.

Mr Hanjra said that radicalism should not be confused with terrorism. He said: "The guidance issued to universities and colleges today, whilst improved from previous leaked drafts, will however not solve all the issues, nor does it give sufficient emphasis to concrete steps to improve good campus relations.

"Any implementation should recognise that demonising Muslims is unacceptable and dangerous."

Sally Hunt, joint general secretary of the University and College Union, raised concerns over the impact of the guidelines on freedom of speech.

"It is not acceptable for individuals, staff or students to be asked to compromise their duty to teach or their wish to learn through debate and argument because of this advice," she said.

"We expect all institutions to respect that and take these views from Government forward in that way."