University chiefs to get security service Cobra briefing on hostile states

Oliver Dowden said he would call in university vice-chancellors for a briefing from the security services on concerns that their institutions were being targeted by hostile states.

Speaking on Thursday, Oliver Dowden said that review was now complete, and had found that universities were “vulnerable and are being targeted”. He added: “In all of this, my starting position is that universities in this country have thrived literally for a millennium by being open, open to new ideas, by being independent of government.

Campaigns have previously raised concerns about the growing influence of foreign states on British universities, including through anonymous donations to institutions and an increasing dependence on foreign students.Last month, the university free speech tsar Professor Arif Ahmed warned that concerns about relations with foreign countries could interfere with academic freedoms or freedom of speech on campuses.

The Deputy Prime Minister warned that rising geopolitical tension was exposing the “security risks” behind globalisation, saying the UK needed to be “clear-eyed” that openness brought vulnerabilities as well as strengths.He said: “We do not make ourselves more secure by being less open..

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