Universities told to report foreign interference on campus to MI5
56 minutes agoNathan StandleyEducation reporter
Getty ImagesUniversity bosses have been told by ministers to report threats of foreign interference directly to the government and security services.
Skills Minister Jacqui Smith said UK universities had become “a prime target for foreign states and hostile actors”.
She said the government did “not take this lightly” and would spend £3m on measures including a new secure platform for vice-chancellors and designated security leaders at universities to report suspicious approaches or interference.
It comes after senior leaders at 70 universities attended a briefing with MI5 director general Sir Ken McCallum to discuss what interference might look like, such as censoring research and intimidating staff.
A report published last August said Chinese students in the UK were being pressured to spy on their classmates.
The UK-China Transparency (UKCT) think tank said its survey of China studies academics had found reports of Chinese government officials warning lecturers to avoid discussing certain topics in their classes.
Some academics also reported intimidation by visiting scholars or other Chinese officials, as well as by staff at Confucius Institutes.
These institues are partnership organisations linking Chinese and UK universities with a Chinese government agency which provides funding.
They promote Chinese culture and language on UK campuses, but have been criticised over alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
The Chinese embassy in London at the time called the UKCT report’s findings “groundless and absurd”, adding that China respects freedom of speech in the UK and elsewhere.
Meawhile, in November BBC News reported how a campaign of harassment and intimidation took place at Sheffield Hallam University in an attempt to shut down an academic’s research into allegations of forced labour among Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region of China.
Laura Murphy, a professor of human rights and contemporary slavery, said at the time that the university had “negotiated directly with a foreign intelligence service to trade my academic freedom for access to the Chinese student market”.
Sheffield Hallam apologised to Murphy. The Chinese embassy criticised some of the university’s work on Xinjiang as being “seriously flawed”.
Following the UK government’s latest intervention urging universities to report any foreign interference, higher education regulator the Office for Students said it would work with the sector to address “significant and growing threats”.
Arif Ahmed, the regulator’s director for freedom of speech, said: “We’ve always been clear that universities must resist external state threats to academic freedom, and that suppression of research because of the disapproval of a foreign government is unacceptable in practically any circumstances.”
Dr Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group of universities, welcomed the idea of a single point of contact for reports, saying this would “empower institutions to report and take action more swiftly and confidently, knowing there is support in place”.