Students covered in fake blood protest arms companies at Uni of Nottingham careers fair

Students from the Demilitarise UoN movement protested at the University of Nottingham’s engineering Careers Fair on Monday 17th October.

The group staged a “die in”, with many of them in blood-stained clothes, in order to encourage the university to cut ties with companies involved in the arms trade.

The demonstration specifically targeted the Rolls-Royce stall, with the group claiming that the university accepted £12,146,049.25 from Rolls-Royce Plc in investments between 2017 and 2021, and that Rolls-Royce is the 17th largest arms company worldwide.

Demilitarise UoN said: “In effect this investment means they are funnelling students and research into companies that are used to cause death and destruction.”

Demilitarise UoN shared a list of their demands to the University of Nottingham in an Instagram post in March 2022, including a demand to stop inviting specific companies to Careers Fairs.

A student involved with the protest said: “The university has been maintaining links with companies that profit from war for too long.

“They know they’re in the wrong here and we need to hold them accountable to their own ethics guidelines. We’ll keep disrupting events until the university’s complicity in international conflict is ended.”

River Butterworth, University of Nottingham Student Union’s Education Officer told The Tab Nottingham: “Last May the Students Union passed a motion in support of lobbying the university to phase out partnerships with all arms manufacturers and to ‘denounce careers fairs which include arms manufacturers and to support protests against these companies if they do come to the university.’

“As the motion instructs, we support the demonstration and we call on the university to follow their own ethical investment policies. To achieve their visions of a university that has a ‘creative culture, that will enable us to change the world for the better’ management must end this contradiction by making the decision to divest.

“Student Union representatives have repeatedly made the university aware of the issue of its complicity in the arms trade, but as of yet any recognition of a will to end these partnerships on their behalf has been met with no action.

“Students deserve ethical and sustainable careers, but instead the university continues to prioritise arms manufacturers for profit.”

The motion referenced by Butterworth in their statement can be found here under section 7.9 “Ban BAE”.

A University of Nottingham spokesperson said: “We were content to facilitate peaceful protest which minimised disruption for the many students who were attending the careers fair to consider their future careers with a wide range of national and global employers.

“The University does not invest in the arms trade or conduct research into weapons. We have partnerships with global engineering companies that bring major benefits to students’ studies, research, and employment prospects. However, these are limited to specific projects such as sustainable propulsion systems and energy storage.

“All research arrangements and international research partnerships are constructed fully in line with UK government legislation and subjected to rigorous internal research security, integrity and ethics procedures.”

The Tab Nottingham has contacted  Rolls-Royce Plc and BAE Systems for comment.

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