Britain’s universities are not the breeding grounds for radical political Islam that some observers have feared, according to a new study from the University of Cambridge.

Concerns in recent years over the incidence of Islamic extremism on campuses have prompted the British government to issue guidelines designed to help higher-education institutions combat the problem. But the new report, “Elite Young Muslims in Britain: Generational Experience and Political Participation,” argues that “young British Muslims are generally hostile to political Islam.”

The report, which is not available online, is based on interviews with students at Cambridge, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the University of Bradford, which has a large Muslim population.

“University students were targeted because less-advantaged young Muslims have been extensively researched elsewhere, and because it is those with higher education who have more often been associated with extremism in recent media treatment,” the report says.

The report describes well-educated young British Muslims as minimally engaged in national politics, but nonetheless “politically assertive” and unafraid to express their views. “Young Western Muslims who enter higher education,” it says, “are confident in their national identity and in their right to engage in civic (including protest) politics.” —Aisha Labi