A new report from The Henry Jackson Society, Spotting The Signs: Identifying Vulnerability to Radicalisation Among Students, investigates students who have travelled from the United Kingdom to join terrorist organisations in Syria and Iraq.
Those who have fought or trained abroad have been disproportionately involved in the most serious Islamist terrorist offences in the UK. Many individuals who have travelled had recent connections to higher education.
The provisions in the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 which introduced a statutory duty for public bodies. But since then only one student has been referred to the Channel Vulnerability Assessment Framework.
The report examines the cases of 29 students who travelled or attempted to travel to Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq.
The report indicates that a high proportion of students had face-to-face contact with other extremists.
In a significant number of cases, behaviour indicative of potential vulnerability to radicalisation was noticed among many of the students profiled, as was the sudden appearance of behaviour associated with increasing religious observance and expression of extreme political views
To read the full report, click here.
An infographic showing key findings from the report is available here.