In recent years there has been a series of high-profile incidents concerning the securitisation of university campuses.
In 2020, a Black first-year student at the University of Manchester was apprehended by campus security services and pinned up against a wall whilst officers attempted to take his ID card. He argued that this was because he was “Black and wearing a hoodie”.
Just days earlier, as part of its response to the pandemic, his university had erected “huge metal barriers” around campus, which students suggested left them feeling “trapped” and “imprisoned”.
In 2021, footage circulated of two student protesters being pinned to the floor by Sheffield Hallam security. These are just some of the stories that have made the headlines, though there are others, and many more that simply haven’t hit the media.
