a pro-Palestine encampment outside King\u2019s College in 2024<\/a>, demanding that the university sever any financial ties with Israel. The students agreed to disband the encampment when the university committed to reviewing its links to the arms and defence industry.<\/p>\nUCIM told a working group established to examine its financial interests that it has no direct investments in weapons. However, it admitted that a small proportion of its investments \u2013 about 1.7% \u2013 are held in the \u201caerospace and defence\u201d sector. So far, it has refused to reveal which companies these investments relate to.<\/p>\n
An open letter shared by the university\u2019s students\u2019 union claimed this could mean up to \u00a370m is invested in arms manufacturers.<\/p>\n
Jason Scott Warren, an English professor, said: \u201cAs they did when they were pressed to divest from fossil fuels some years ago, the university\u2019s investment managers are claiming that their \u2018fund of funds\u2019 model will not allow them to reveal which companies they invest in or to perform even the most commonplace forms of ethical screening.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe structures that have been set up around the endowment are clearly designed to create maximal obfuscation and to prevent any troublesome democratic interference with the technocratic decisions of the university administration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cambridge\u2019s university council \u2013 which includes vice-chancellor Deborah Prentice, some college heads and elected staff and students \u2013 will discuss a report commissioned after calls to pull investments from the arms industry, compiled by the working group.<\/p>\n
The working group expressed frustration at the fact it did not receive a complete list of the companies the fund invested in, saying: \u201cWe acknowledge the commercial importance of confidentiality, but the fact that the members of the working group do not know the extent of the university\u2019s investments in companies which manufacture weapons has made the formulation of our recommendations significantly more difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
Its members are understood to have been divided on how the fund should approach investments involving arms manufacturers. Some opposed arms divestment, but suggested a transparency report \u2013 including details of the companies involved \u2013 should be produced if these investments exceed 1% of the fund.<\/p>\n
Others suggested a policy of limiting arms investments so they remain below 1% of the fund at all times. Another section of the group thought the fund should not invest in any company producing arms. This tallies with the position of the students\u2019 union, which has been calling on students to ask members of the council to push for full arms divestment.<\/p>\n
M\u00f3nica Moreno Figueroa, a sociology professor, said: \u201cThe University of Cambridge has an ethical obligation to ensure that its investments do not contribute \u2013 directly or indirectly \u2013 to genocide, militarised violence, ethnic cleansing, and collective punishment. Continued financial ties to the arms industry render the university institutionally complicit in these harms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peach Hoyle, a postgraduate student and pro-Palestine campaigner, said: \u201cFinancial transparency and divestment are essential steps if this university wants to be accountable to its students, staff and community, rather than corporate interests and government agendas.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, other academics have said they support the fund investing in the defence sector given the UK\u2019s precarious national security situation.<\/p>\n
Richard Penty, an engineering professor, said: \u201cThe investment fund does not invest in weapons illegal under English law. The UK needs to be able to defend itself, so the idea that the university should turn its back on UK national security, particularly at a time of increased global turmoil, is dangerous and unethical.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report\u2019s authors said they did not think investments in arms companies contradicted Cambridge\u2019s \u201ccharitable purposes\u201d but said the university should \u201chave regard to ethical considerations\u201d. Cambridge University declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cambridge academics have accused the university of \u201cmaximal obfuscation\u201d in a row over its \u00a34bn investment fund and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-267310","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}