Fellow's Profile
Fellow's Profile
Bridging divides on campus: equipping students to engage constructively across political differences
Countering polarisation on university campuses by creating student-led interventions for dialogue
2025
London
I am the CEO of SOAS Students’ Union. The focus of my Fellowship is to counter rising polarisation on UK university campuses by developing student-led interventions for constructive dialogue and equipping student leaders with the tools they need to create inclusive, tolerant and pluralistic campus communities.
This work comes from what I’ve witnessed at first hand: an erosion of dialogue across difference in our universities. Rising antisemitism and Islamophobia, compounded by a broader societal retreat from political pluralism, pose a threat to community cohesion and our wider democracy. I will travel across the USA and the Middle East to learn from both world-leading academic institutions and grassroots organisations that are bridging divides and rebuilding dialogue in communities.
My goal is to develop a range of practical resources, events and leadership programmes for students, universities and students’ unions that help restore the conditions for dialogue on UK campuses. I want to support the next generation of student leaders - those who stand for belonging and justice across all communities - to lead with clarity, courage and compassion.
Irfan Zaman (CF 2025) spoke at the Association of Heads of University Administration Conference at the University of Exeter, contributing to a panel discussion on free speech and campus dialogue in higher education.
By Irfan Zaman, 27 April 2026
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
Irfan Zaman (CF 2025) spoke at the Association of Heads of University Administration Conference at the University of Exeter, contributing to a panel discussion on free speech and campus dialogue in higher education.
By Irfan Zaman, 27 April 2026
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
