Britain’s education tsar has proposed new legislation which would see University organisations risk being fined for taking money from authoritarian regimes such as China.
University organisations, including the likes of student unions, have been threatened with the future possibility of being fined for taking Chinese money by Britain’s education tsar should it be found that they risk appeasing by taking the funds.
Under the new measures, all university groups will be required to declare all foreign funding amounting to £75,000 (~$91,500) or more, as well as all funding of any amount originating from authoritarian regimes such as China, with groups risking being handed fines should it be found that the foreign funding risks compromising freedom of speech.
According to a report by The Telegraph, UK Education Secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, is taking on foreign funding in the hopes of curbing the likelihood of British third-level institutions curbing the likes of free speech in the hopes of appeasing their Chinese paymasters.
“There is obviously a balance to be had here and I want our universities to be transparent when it comes to foreign money being invested,” the Education Secretary said.
“Our amendment is a proportionate means of addressing the legitimate concerns over the influence of foreign money from countries such as China without reducing the ability of our world class universities to work with global powers,” he continued.
Meanwhile, The Daily Mail reports the government’s higher education minister, Michelle Donelan, is also backing the move as a way to protect British values against foreign threats.
“It is right that we are taking action to protect our universities from undue foreign influences that work against British values,” she said. “This is a Bill that the rest of the world will take note of.”
The political manoeuvre by Zahawi comes as fears mount regarding the influence that the Chinese Communist Party have over various aspects of third-level institutions in Britain.
Universities in the western nation have become more and more reliant on direct and indirect funding from China through the likes of lucrative foreign grants worth millions of dollars being handed out by CCP-linked companies such as Huawei.
Chinese students are also making up an ever-greater percentage of college ledger books, with many third-level institutions looking like they will become more and more addicted to the foreign supply of fee-paying students, with the number of Chinese scholars in Britain looking set to double over the 2020s.
All of these factors have already resulted in some serious ethical and security scares, with colleges embroiling themselves in the teaching of Chinese Communist thought and the exposure of sensitive scientific research after making arrangements with communist institutions located in the authoritarian state.
“There should be a full inquiry into the higher education sector’s relationship with China,” Hong Kong Watch chairman Benedict Rogers previously told Breitbart London.
“We cannot afford to compromise academic freedom and freedom of expression on campuses, and there is at the very least a danger that receiving significant funding from CCP-linked enterprises turns our universities into hostages for Beijing,” he went on to warn.