Welfare and rights officer Stella Swain proposed the motion (Picture: Getty/ CUSU)

Cambridge University students say military personnel and weapons shouldn’t be allowed at the freshers’ fair as they could ‘detrimentally affect’ the mental health of attendees.

Stella Swain, welfare and rights officer at the students’ union, proposed a motion to ban societies from bringing firearms to the fair, which was then passed.

She stated that seeing weapons and military personnel at a fair could be ‘alarming and off-putting’ for some students.

The motion also indicated that their presence could signal ‘implicit approval of their use, despite the links between military and firearms and violence on an international scale’.


Ms Swain said she believed the freshers’ fair should not be a place for external military organisations ‘to recruit’, adding that the CUSU had previously pledged to ‘demilitarise’ the university.

Ms Swain said the presence of firearms at the fair could be ‘alarming and off-putting’ for students (Picture: CUSU)

The motion has since been branded ‘pathetic, to say the very least’ by the former commander of the British Forces in Afghanistan.



Colonel Richard Kemp told the Telegraph that he believed it was just ‘another effort’ by students to ‘undermine British society’.

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He continued: ‘Without the Armed Forces these students wouldn’t be able to study, they are only able to because the country has been protected and defended by the British Army.

‘Many students from Cambridge University fought and died in the Armed Forces and for our country.

‘Students should have more respect for those who went before them, who made the ultimate sacrifice to allow them to study in freedom.’

Three societies at Cambridge receive funding from the Ministry of Defence (Picture: Getty Images)

The CUSU had previously pledged to ‘demilitarise’ the university (Picture: Getty Images)

There are currently three societies at Cambridge which receive some funding from the Ministry of Defence.

Ben Hodgkinson-Toay, an engineering finalist at Cambridge and platoon commander with the Cambridge University Officer Training Corps (CUOTC), said the societies mostly organise non-military outdoor activities for students.

He described Ms Swain’s comments as an ‘unfair attack’ on those who wished to join the military groups.

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In a statement, a spokesperson for CUSU explained that the motion originally proposed to ban external staff from national organisations at the freshers’ fair.

It continued: ‘This part of the motion was removed before it was passed.

‘The final motion only proposed to restrict firearms at the Freshers’ Fair event and did not constitute any sort of ban on military personnel, military organisations or military student societies.

‘All registered student societies are welcome at the CUSU Freshers’ Fair, including student military societies, and this will continue to be the case.’

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