The Robert Gordon University (RGU) in Scotland in the United Kingdom has stripped U.S. Republican candidate Donald Trump of an honorary degree awarded to the businessman in 2012. The university received almost $1m in funding from the European Union in 2011/12, and has over a dozen members of staff who are inextricably linked to the pro mass migration European Commission. 

The university, which is a key backer of offshore wind farms, which Mr. Trump’s organisation is fighting in Scotland, said in a statement today: “In 2010 Robert Gordon University awarded an honorary DBA to Mr Donald Trump, in recognition of his achievements as an entrepreneur and businessman.

“In the course of the current US election campaign, Mr Trump has made a number of statements that are wholly incompatible with the ethos and values of the university. The university has therefore decided to revoke its award of the honorary degree.”

The news was met with broad approval from Scots on social media – hardly surprising given that 82 per cent of voters in Scotland voted for socialists or social democrats at Britain’s General Election in May.

But the university may be being directed from above when it comes to its “ethos and values”, with 2012 documentation showing that the university received $630,000 from the European Commission for a “sustainability” computing project.

Further documentation shows that the university has acted as a partner organisation with the European Commission, with a report stating that a pro-EU “process was greatly supported by the personnel of Robert Gordon University, with unfailing patience and giving freely of their professional expertise”.

The Guardian newspaper noted earlier this year that Mr.Trump “has waged a vigorous campaign against the project to install 11 offshore wind turbines of different types in a test site off Aberdeen known as the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre [EOWDC], ever since launching his [golf] resort proposals eight years ago”.

The EOWDC has been stalled due to a lack of funding, despite securing $44m funding from the European Commission and Mr. Trump has pledged to spend millions blocking the project in Britain’s Supreme Court, and in the European courts “if necessary”.

So Mr. Trump’s comments about Muslims and immigration may not be the only driving factor behind Robert Gordon University’s decision. The university’s staff are regulars at European Commission events, and their lecturers are routinely assisted by the European Commission for projects.

Julia Kennedy, listed on the RGU website as “International Exchanges Manager” is the European Commission’s UK Erasmus Staff Ambassador. According to RGU, Erasmus “is an EU-funded education and training programme which enables students and university staff to undertake study and work placements in other European countries”, contributing to an “open borders” philosophy across the European Union.

The university has also been supportive of a push towards a common European Union/United States “Common Aviation Area”.

And those in the pay of the European Union, guaranteed large EU pensions, include people at the very top of the university’s board of governors. David Brew – top of the list of the Board of Governors, “joined the Scottish Office as a graduate trainee in 1979 before transferring to the European Commission in Brussels”.

The university’s new Vice Principal for Research, Prof. Paul Hagan, “was on a three-year secondment to the European Commission’s International Scientific Cooperation Programme” before joining the university and the university is one of six “partner” organisations and beneficiaries of the EU-sponsored RiCORE programme which seeks to lower the barriers to the development of “offshore renewables” i.e. wind farms.

Caroline Nixon, a Lecturer RGU, “has worked on many EU-funded projects assessing transposition and implementation of the EU’s Environmental legislation for the European Commission, European Parliament, World Bank and other institutions”.

When Mr. Trump was first awarded the honorary degree in 2010, the former principal of the Aberdeen-based university: “Mr Trump is simply not a suitable person to be given an honorary degree and he should not be held up as an example of how to conduct business”.