Consent

The University of Oxford tells students that consent is “an essential foundation for a safe and respectful community of learning.”

It also requires all first-year students to complete Consent for Students training, and encourages all students to refresh that training annually: https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/welfare/supportservice/consent-training

That’s why the recent reporting by Al Jazeera English and Liberty Investigates is so troubling.

According to the investigation, University of Oxford was among several UK universities that paid Horus Security Consultancy Limited to monitor campus protest activity, including pro-Palestine student activism.

And here’s the part that should make University of Oxford especially uncomfortable: Al Jazeera reports that Horus was originally established in 2006 as a project within Oxford’s own security team.

So this isn’t just a story about universities outsourcing surveillance. It’s also a story about how a campus security function can evolve into a private intelligence service, then be sold back into the university sector.

There may be legal arguments about whether this was permitted. But legality is not the same as ethical legitimacy. If consent is central to a respectful learning community, then institutions must model it too. Monitoring students’ social media activity or protest involvement without their knowledge raises serious questions about transparency, trust, academic freedom, and the chilling effect on lawful political expression.

Learn more here: British universities paid security firm to ‘spy’ on pro-Palestine students. Investigation reveals how a company led by ex-military intelligence officials scanned social media use and undertook background checks on a Palestinian guest speaker: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/20/uk-universities-pay-to-spy-on-students-social-media-accounts.