SWANSEA UNIVERSITY: Arms jobs pledge dropped as uni joins MoD defence alliance its staff union voted against

Swansea University used to promise its students it would not push jobs in the arms trade at them. That promise has gone.

Its ethical careers policy once ruled out marketing campaigns for roles in “the fossil fuels, mining, arms and tobacco industries”. The version on its website today names just one: tobacco.

Staff opposed to the change say it came days after the university was unveiled as a founding member of the Ministry of Defence’s new Defence Universities Alliance.

Signing up commits Swansea to growing its military research. It must also “allow and support” defence firms and the Armed Forces at its careers events.

The university’s own staff union voted against joining. Members only found out afterwards that the application had already gone in.

‘A new era of national threat’: what the university says

The university confirmed the careers policy has changed. It did not say what had been taken out.

A spokesperson said it was “recently updated” after “extensive consultation”, as part of the accreditation framework for its careers service, “to reflect our commitment to supporting students to develop the skills, experience and confidence needed for the workplaces of the future”.

It said students get “impartial careers support” to make decisions “based on their own interests, values and aspirations”, and are encouraged “to develop their own ethical perspectives and act as agents of positive change”.

On the alliance, the university said that “as the UK enters a new era of national threat, the security, safety and resilience of our communities is an emerging challenge”.

Membership “reflects the breadth of our expertise across areas including advanced materials, human interaction and physiology, cyber security and threats, navigation and communications”, the spokesperson said.

It is “confident” the alliance will bring “new opportunities for collaboration, skills development and innovation”, and says it is committed to engaging with students, staff and campus unions “as these opportunities emerge”.

We asked whether anyone was consulted before it applied, and whether the timing of the policy change had anything to do with the alliance. The statement did not address either.

The vote that came too late

Members of Swansea UCU passed a motion on 24 June calling on the university’s leaders not to sign.

Nineteen days later the MoD published its list of 35 founding members, and Swansea was on it. Cardiff is the only other Welsh university there.

Staff behind the campaign say members had no idea the application was already in.

It was no landslide. Campaigners say the motion passed with 46% in favour, 33% against and 21% abstaining.

The staff member who proposed it, who asked not to be named, said: “Universities should be spaces where research is driven by society’s most pressing needs, not by industries that profit from violence and suffering.”

The motion itself warns that the alliance “threatens academic freedom” by pulling research “away from urgent social, environmental, and humanitarian challenges toward military applications”.

The union wrote to the vice chancellor after the vote to set out members’ concerns. Campaigners say the reply said the leadership team wanted to hear feedback and agreed to a discussion, which is due on Monday 28 September.

What Swansea has signed up to, in the MoD’s own words

The alliance launched on 13 July as part of a £182m defence skills package. The MoD says almost 100 universities applied, and that it wants to turn research into “battlefield advantage and medical advances”.

The charter commits members to “actively growing research and development activity and capacity in defence and national security relevant fields”.

On jobs, it is more carefully worded than its critics suggest. Defence careers are to be “promoted as part of a balanced portfolio of impartial careers guidance”, with firms at careers events “to ensure a balanced representation of different industries”.

In return, members get a say in the MoD’s research priorities, introductions to defence companies, and access to ministers.

What the old careers policy promised

The careers policy was adopted in 2023 after a campaign by students and staff. As well as the marketing pledge, it kept oil, gas and tar sands companies out of careers fairs.

Arms companies were never banned from the fairs themselves. The union’s own motion says the university “resisted demands” to do that.

The current policy says it excludes only industries legally barred from advertising, and lists tobacco as the example.

Cardiff, and a campus already at odds

Cardiff UCU passed its own motion after that university joined. A member of its executive committee called it “beyond disappointing” that management had signed up “without even consulting with staff or students”.

In Swansea the row lands on strained ground. Last October, UCU members passed a vote of no confidence in the vice chancellor over £25m of staffing cuts.