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University College London students wear military uniform to protest against the college’s investment |
Student war on UCL’s arms trade shares
SCORES of students at University College London staged a protest on Tuesday urging the college to stop funding the arms trade.
They gathered in front of the historic dome building in Gower Street dressed in camouflage uniforms and mortarboards as part of a protest against UCL’s investment in Cobham plc.
The college holds nearly £1 million of shares in the arms company, which supplies aircraft equipment to the coalition forces in Iraq.
The UCL council recently decided to keep the shares in Cobham plc despite more than 1,200 signatures from students calling for an ethical investment policy.
Student campaigner Craig Griffiths said: “UCL tells us that it wants to look into investing its money ethically. Clinging on to the arms shares calls the commitment to ethical investment into question.
“Many UCL alumni have told the provost that they will not donate to UCL as long as the arms investment continues.”
A UCL spokesman said: “UCL presently holds shares in one company in the aerospace and defence sector, Cobham. Cobham is engaged in wide-ranging engineering and manufacturing activity that includes defence-related activity.
“UCL takes seriously its ethical responsibilities in investment. In June, UCL council accepted the provost’s proposal to set up a working party to look at the whole issue of devising an ethical investment policy for UCL, which is presently limited to not investing in tobacco stocks.
“In discussion with students and other stake-holders, we will be establishing what might be the best approach for UCL.” |
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