THE University of Glasgow has been accused of suppressing dissent after a student campaigner for arms divestment was banned from campus.

Final-year sociology student Neve Mclean faces completing her degree in isolation, a punishment her supporters argue is “usually reserved for those who have committed gender-based violence.” 

Students are proceeding with their campaign to force university management to cut the institution’s ties with arms manufacturers, which they say makes it complicit with Israeli atrocities.

The university holds £6.8 million in investments and receives £60m across 23 research grants tied to weapons production.

But despite polling showing a clear majority of staff and students oppose its relationships with companies such as BAE Systems, as well as an escalation of campus protests, management have refused to change course. 

The latest Glasgow University Justice for Palestine Society action on April 1 saw them disrupt an open day for potential engineering, finance and physics students.

Ms McLean was the only one of 20 protesters to face sanction after months of what supporters have called “targeted aggression” since being threatened with suspension in November for her pro-Palestinian actions.

One incident in February saw her singled out and surrounded by male security guards who told her they’d “been waiting.”

Ms Mclean said: “The university’s decision to ban me has been extremely frustrating, but ultimately unsurprising.

“They would rather put time and resources into punitive measures instead of meaningfully engaging with the large population of staff and students at this university who believe an institution of education has no business investing in weapons.

“In the final stages of my degree I have been banned from accessing any university facilities. Senior management should be ashamed of themselves.

“The student intifada on campus fighting for divestment should be very proud of themselves, clearly the pressure is working.”

Writing to university management, lecturers union UCU accused them of ignoring the “longstanding will of its students and staff by choosing to continue to invest in, and profit from, the arms trade” and demanded they refrain and revoke disciplinary action against students engaged in peaceful protest on campus, warning it would “inevitably inflame tensions.”

“Management should just divest and not ban students,” a member of the group said.

A University of Glasgow spokesperson said they do not comment on individual students.