Cambridge’s governing body are set to vote on proposals for Cambridge University to divest from the arms industry by the start of Michaelmas Term 2025.

Last Friday (26/07),  a Grace signed by 166 academics was submitted to the University Council on 26 July 2024 outlining its demands. These include the disclosure of all direct and indirect investments in “companies whose business is concerned with the arms industry”.

The motion demands that the University ensures that complete divestment is achieved and that future arms investments are prevented. It also requests that the annual report of the Cambridge University Endowment Fund should include “information on this category of investments [arms investments]”.

The University Council will consider for approval the Grace on 21 October, with the proposal to be voted on in the months after. 

If passed, the grace would see the University Council publish a report to the University within six months providing details of how they will divest and a timetable of how this will be completed. Alongside this, the report should examine how divestment will affect the University’s “mission and function”.

In a statement released on 23 July 2024, the University promised to review investments, setting out a roadmap of how the review will take place. This included the establishment of a working group to begin the process over summer with the review taking place during Michaelmas 2024.

The statement was in reaction to ongoing pressure from students on the University to divest from arms companies, with an encampment being set up on King’s Parade by Pro-Palestine students.

Following the University’s promise to review arms investments, the protesters agreed to dismantle the camp.

The University also proposed creating a student-led task force which would “oversee policy” around investments and research. Cambridge for Palestine (C4P), the student group behind the camp, stated that they would co-operate with the task force and working group to “make sure that […] commitments [to review arms investments and partnerships] are enacted”.

However, the statement did not explicitly commit to any divestment from the arms industry, and instead offered to “review processes relating to responsible investments,” to ensure they are in line with the University’s “institutional values”.

The Grace forms part of growing pressure on the University to divest from the arms industry. Alongside C4P’s encampment, which was formally supported by the SU and multiple college JCRs, King’s College committed to reviewing sustainable investments in June. This followed a protest by students against its alleged ties to Israel.

Trinity College also reportedly committed to pull its direct investments in arms companies, after they were found to hold investments in Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms company.

The University of Cambridge was contacted for comment