UK and Australian universities to work together on security

Universities in the UK and Australia have joined forces to call on their governments to avoid introducing “unnecessarily restrictive measures” in the face of national security concerns.

A joint statement, released by the Russell Group and its Australian equivalent, the Group of Eight (Go8), pledged to work with lawmakers to ensure any new regulations coming the sector’s way are “effective and risk-based” and ensure the nations remain “open to the world”.

The boards of both organisations met in early April to discuss the repercussions of possible regulations aimed at curbing foreign interference on campuses.

Australian institutions face more restrictions after the influential Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) recommended 27 actions be taken including a grants audit, curbs on the Chinese-run Confucius Institutes and the publication of annual reports detailing incidents of “harassment, intimidation and censorship”.

Those in the UK are monitoring developments closely, with it thought likely that officials will try to implement similar policies over the next few years.

Institutions in both countries, however, share concerns around excessive reporting burdens and a lack of clarity over how regulations will work in practice.

Go8 chair Margaret Gardner and her Russell Group counterpart Nancy Rothwell signalled their intention to work closely together with the joint statement, which reaffirmed a commitment to protecting international collaborations.

“Research drives the prosperity of modern, engaged, successful countries and will be critical to finding effective solutions to the challenges increasingly impacting societies across the globe, such as climate change, food and water security, global pandemics, antibiotic resistance and the ethical use of emerging technologies such as AI and machine learning, among others,” the statement said.

“The Go8 and the Russell Group produce a range of high-quality, world-class research that addresses these challenges and underpins the success and prosperity of both our nations.

“We recognise that, like any other valuable asset, this research and the collaborations that drive it, need to be protected from rapidly evolving threats in a complex global environment.”

Both organisations pledged to work with their respective governments and security agencies to “continue developing effective and risk-based measures to protect future international collaborations, prevent unnecessarily restrictive measures and ensure our respective nations remain open to the world”.

Foreign interference on universities has long been a concern of governments but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has placed a renewed emphasis on the issue.  

Some in Australia have dismissed the potential new regulations as unnecessary with documented cases of foreign meddling remaining low, while others say intimidation is commonplace and action is well overdue.

In the UK, the politician Jesse Norman tabled an amendment to the freedom of speech bill working its way through parliament that would force higher education providers to disclose the names of foreign donors who contribute more than £50,000.

Alexis Brown, the director of policy and advocacy at the Higher Education Policy Institute, said this shows UK concern over foreign influence and interference “isn’t going anywhere”.

She said universities in the UK should be watching developments in Australia closely as the country has always been a few years ahead on the issue and “many of the measures being proposed may be copied” in the UK before long.

If this does happen, the UK may need a new body, Dr Brown said, as it doesn’t quite have an equivalent of Australia’s University Foreign Interference Taskforce, which has been given responsibility for almost half of the recommendations of the report.

The taskforce is composed in equal parts of government and sector representatives, and Dr Brown said the creation of such a formal structure in the UK “could help ensure that security issues are addressed in a fully joined-up way, with responsibility for action shared equally between sector and government stakeholders”.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com