King’s College London has reinstated a student suspended over non-academic misconduct following pro-Palestine protest activity, after a year-long legal dispute and campaign calling for his return to the university.
Usama Ghanem, 22, was suspended and excluded from campus last year. King’s upheld misconduct charges against him at two hearings in 2025, including causing injury to a security guard, “acting in an intimidating and hostile manner” and causing reputational damage to the university.
His suspension also resulted in the withdrawal of his student visa sponsorship, with the university notifying UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) of the change to his student status.
Following a review last month, however, Ghanem was informed that “there is no reason for your suspension or exclusion to remain in place”. King’s has also confirmed that he will receive the Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) number required to apply for a new student visa.
A spokesperson for King’s College London said:
“A review of Mr Ghanem’s suspension, which was always scheduled to take place after one year, upheld the original reasons for his suspension but determined that he had met the conditions agreed for suspension and that re-enrolment was therefore the appropriate outcome.“
Speaking to Roar following his reinstatement, Ghanem described the outcome as a victory for the wider student movement which had campaigned on his behalf:
“This injustice and the process have felt extremely bitter throughout, but it needed to be fought and now I can say that we took on a 200 years old institution and we won it after a sustained public and legal pressure for a year, this sits a new precedent that universities that crackdown on pro Palestine speech and protest are ought to be overturned.
“This is not a win for me, rather for the 25 other students who have put their degrees on line, that’s their win, and the win for every single student in KCL, London, the UK, the west and beyond who campaigned against this crackdown.
“Now is the time to held King’s accountable over its investments in genocide, and the merger with Cranfield University that aims to make our study the hub to manufacture weapons to kill innocent people all around the world.”
At least 26 King’s students faced disciplinary investigations following pro-Palestine protest activity between October 2023 and November 2025, according to a joint investigation by Al Jazeera and Liberty Investigates.
Ghanem’s suspension also prompted protests on campus calling for his reinstatement, alongside demands for the university to divest from arms and technology companies accused to be complicit in Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Documents obtained through a subject access request showed that Horus Security Consultancy Ltd, a private security company used by King’s, passed the university information about demonstrations supporting Ghanem. This included publicly available event posters, timings and locations, as well as information about attendance.
King’s disputes characterisations of its use of Horus as surveillance.
A spokesperson for King’s College London said:
“We will always apply a fair approach to misconduct proceedings, and have a duty to act where behaviour breaches safeguarding and security regulations, or puts others at risk. Decisions about visa sponsorship are not made by King’s but by UK Visas & Immigration, who we have a legal duty to notify of any change in student status. It is untrue to claim that King’s has or would surveil any student. We have not, and would not, employ a service to gather information on any individual student, we do not share any personal data of students or staff with Horus, and all information collated by Horus is already publicly available elsewhere. Like many universities, we use Horus as a horizon scanning tool for updates on events on or near our campuses, including protests on any subject. This allows us to make sure we have the right resources in place to ensure the events can continue safely and within the bounds of the law, as is our duty of care. We are proud of King’s long history of protest, and we will continue to uphold the rights of our students to lawful freedom of expression.”
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