Oxford and Cambridge spent more than £615,000 on pro-Palestine protest clean-ups

The University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford have incurred over £615,000 in combined costs because of pro-Palestine encampments and protests, the JC can reveal.

The top universities footed bills related to clean-ups, security and legal support after facing months of student-led action related to the war in Gaza.

The pro-Palestinian student encampment outside King's College on May 08, 2024 in Cambridge, England. (Getty Images)[Missing Credit]

For both institutions, some of the costs were also due to stunts by Palestine Action, the direct-action group that the Home Secretary plans to proscribe under anti-terror laws.

According to figures recently obtained by the JC through a Freedom of Information (FoI) request, Cambridge spent £255,000 in costs related to the student ‘occupations’ of Greenwich House and Senate House Yard, and the vandalism of the Old Schools and Senate House.

Members of Cambridge for Palestine occupied Greenwich House – the administrative centre of the university – for 15 days last year between November 22 and December 6.

The building houses commercially sensitive and personal information relating to the institution.

Meanwhile, Senate House Lawn, where students gather after graduating, has been occupied multiple times since October 7, 2023 – notably in May 2024 and again in November.

The bill from the two occupations was £230,000 according to Cambridge, including legal fees, security costs, alternative arrangements for graduation and an electronic security sweep of Greenwich House.

The non-legal costs included: £63,000 for security, £5,800 for the electronic security sweep, £1,200 for Greenwich House cleaning costs and £2,000 for the use of Great St Mary’s for alternative graduation arrangements.

In November last year, graduation ceremonies again took place in St Mary’s, the church across the road from Senate House, due to the renewed occupation.

And in June last year, Cambridge condemned Palestine Action after red paint was sprayed on the historic building. The direct-action group justified its actions by saying it wanted to reflect the "Palestinian bloodshed".

Red paint daubed on the University of Cambridge's Senate House. (Photo: X)[Missing Credit]

In March 2025, Palestine Action again sprayed red paint on the office which manages Cambridge University's Endowment Fund, The Old Schools on Trinity Lane.

Costs related to the removal of paint from the buildings, and the repair of damage to the Senate House railings and similar work, amounted to £25,000 for Cambridge.

Meanwhile, the University of Oxford spent over £360,000 from April 2024 to March 2025 due to pro-Palestine protests on campus, according to an FoI obtained by Cherwell.

The most substantial cost was the £250,000 accrued due to the vandalism at the Blavatnik School of Government in February 2025 by Palestine Action. The windows of the building were smashed in an overnight attack on what has been described as one of the university’s "newest and most vibrant" departments.

A pro-Palestinian encampment on campus at the University of Oxford in May, 2024. (Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

Oxford spent over £25,000 on repairs to the university offices at Wellington Square, which were daubed with red paint and attacked with lump hammers – smashing glass doors and windows – in October 2024.

Windows were smashed at the administrative offices of the University of Oxford in October, 2024. (Photo: University of Oxford)[Missing Credit]

Palestine Action said "locals and students" had worked with it to damage the administrative building, but the Oxford Action for Palestine (OA4P) group said it was not involved in the incident.

Removing graffiti from university buildings, the Saïd Business School and Examination Schools cost £4,000. Meanwhile, student-led encampments at the Natural History Museum and around the Radcliffe Camera last year cost the university £44,699 and £19,771 respectively.

A banner reading 'Jews for a free Palestine' at Oxford University on May 7, 2024, at a pro-Palestinian camp set up on the campus. (Getty Images)[Missing Credit]

Increased security was also a strain on the budget, adding £11,848 to Oxford’s bill due to the cost of paying staff overtime for managing the demonstrations.

Responding to the costs incurred, Cambridge for Palestine told the JC: "The University should be far more concerned about the moral stain of investing in a genocide rather than the cost of protests on their campus"

Oxford Action for Palestine told Cherwell: “The University has paid their own private security overtime to monitor students, called the police on students peacefully protesting, built fences around both the Radcliffe Camera and the Pitt Rivers Museum, erected barricades at Wellington Square, and bulldozed the memorial garden in the Pitt Rivers encampment all on their own dime.”

The JC contacted the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford for comment.