UK universities’ engagement with autocracies: Foreign Affairs Committee checks back on key recommendations from 2019 report

Tuesday 28 February at 14.30, Committee Room 8

Watch live or on demand: ParliamentLive.tv

The Foreign Affairs Committee is to consider the actions taken by Government and the higher education sector following its 2019 report, A cautious embrace: defending democracy in an age of autocracies.

The 2019 report concluded that not enough was being done to protect academic freedom from financial, political and diplomatic pressure. The Committee warned that the battle for university students or trade deals should not outweigh the international standards which have brought freedom and prosperity to the UK and the wider world. Members said that Government’s advice to academia on the potential threats from autocracies was ‘non-existent.’

In this session, the Committee will test whether current Government guidance to universities, and guidelines produced by groups of universities themselves, are adequate. The extent to which universities have used these guidelines to address the risks inherent in internationalisation of higher education will be considered.

MPs will investigate the security risks in joint research projects with organisations based in autocracies such as intellectual property theft, espionage and data theft.  The potential for over-dependence on funding from Chinese students and the risks that may cause to the UK’s universities will also be considered.

Witnesses

Panel 1 at 14.30:

• Fiona Quimbre, Analyst, RAND Europe
• Vivienne Stern, CEO, Universities UK
• Andrew Chubb, Senior Lecturer in Chinese Politics and International Relations, Lancaster University

Panel 2 at 15.20:

• Anthony Finkelstein, President, City, University of London
• Tim Bradshaw, CEO, Russell Group
• Alan Mackay, Deputy Vice-Principal International at Edinburgh University and Director of Edinburgh Global.