New Academic Funding Report From the Centre for Social Cohesion

LONDON - A Degree of Influence: The Funding of Strategically Important Subjects
in UK Universities

- By Robin Simcox

- Foreign Funding Threatens Academic Impartiality in UK Universities,
Claims Think Tank

A cash crisis in higher education has allowed foreign donors
unprecedented influence over the running of UK universities, reveals a new
report by the Centre for Social Cohesion.

A Degree of Influence: The funding of strategically important
subjects in UK universities, published on Monday, focuses on strategically
important area and language studies, including Japanese, Chinese and Islamic
Studies. The report shows that many UK universities cannot run courses
without the financial backing from foreign donors - many of whom are
unelected, despotic governments notorious for regular human rights abuses.

A Degree of Influence presents evidence of the following:

Censorship:

- A Saudi artist was forced to have his painting removed at a recent
exhibition on Saudi Arabia at the School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS). The painting - a cracked bridge with ‘Al-Siraat’ (or ‘the path’)
scrawled across it - was deemed offensive enough by one of the exhibition’s
sponsors for SOAS to ban it from campus.

- An academic at Oxford moved to stifle discussion on the funding of
terrorism when a fellow academic raised the subject with a Saudi member of
the audience at a conference on terrorist networks being held at the
university. The academic said that ‘Muslims must show respect for other
Muslims’ beliefs and I would like you to please bear in mind what is
appropriate to say in the venue where you might be going beyond what would be
comfortable for everyone to hear’.

Funding agreements altering the running of universities:

- Terms of agreements for Islamic Studies centres have included clauses
allowing the principal donor significant oversight over their running.
Following a GBP16 million grant, a Saudi prince is allowed to pick appointees
on the management committees at the Islamic Studies centres at Edinburgh and
Cambridge.

- Chinese studies centres at UK universities, known as Confucius
Institutes, are established by the Chinese government and have numerous
members of the government sitting on their advisory board.

Academic impartiality under threat:

- The Chinese government sets the curriculum for Confucius Institutes,
with the university required to accept ‘operational guidance’ from the
government in order to ‘follow their relevant teaching standard’.

- The Al-Maktoum Institute, an independent Islamic Studies institution
affiliated to Aberdeen, has been established in order to disseminate the
political outlook and ‘vision’ of its primary donor and namesake.

- Exeter appears to have tailored its research in order to exonerate the
ancestors of Sultan al-Qasimi, who is a primary donor to the university, of
past criminal acts. Al-Qasimi had originally written a PhD at the university
aiming to disprove allegations that his forbearers were criminals; and in the
years following a significant donation of cash from al-Qasimi, Exeter has
published work from an academic also aiming to refute this allegation against
al-Qasimi’s ancestors, and approved a PhD researching the same issue.

Donations have earned a platform for human rights abusers to
address UK students:

- Following a large donation to Oxford from Saudi Arabia, a lecture
series was set up in tribute to the Saudi king. Once every two years his
government sends a representative to lecture Oxford students.

- SOAS hosted an event in tribute to the way Ayatollah Khomeini had
modernised Islamic thought following a donation from the Iranian government.
The event was organised in conjunction with the Institute for Islamic
Studies, a group who have extremely close ties to the Iranian government.

Universities used as diplomatic tools:

- The Chinese government are perfectly open about the fact that they see
Confucius Institutes as cultural arms of their government abroad, and a vital
form of ’soft power’.

- Oxford has received a donation from the Moroccan British Society, an
organisation affiliated to the Moroccan government which specifically aimed
at raising the country’s profile in the UK.

- A donation to the London School of Economics from Turkey was regarded
as an important step by that nation in helping their attempt to gain
accession to the European Union.

Lack of transparency:

- Foreign donors are allowed to give money with total anonymity, and
universities are not obliged, or sometimes legally are not allowed, to
publish the nature of the agreement.

Robin Simcox, Research Fellow at the Centre for Social
Cohesion and author of the report, said:

‘Across the country regimes with appalling human rights
records pump huge amounts of cash into UK academia. They are using UK
universities as diplomatic tools in promoting their own agenda. This clearly
needs to be addressed.

‘The concept of foreign funding itself is not the problem.
However too often the donation is not for impartial academic research, but a
public relations exercise - aimed at altering perceptions of certain nations
and subjects.’

Douglas Murray, Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion,
said:

‘Underfunding of universities has had a hugely damaging
effect. The fact that institutes and courses are being run in the UK solely
because of donations from dictators and despots is appalling’.

The full report can be downloaded here:
www.socialcohesion.co.uk/uploads/1238071445a_degree_of_influence_website.pdf

An Executive Summary is available here:
www.socialcohesion.co.uk/uploads/1238074079exec_sum_for_website.pdf

The Centre for Social Cohesion is an independent human rights think tank
that specialises in studying radicalisation and extremism within Britain.

Press enquiries: +44(0)207-222-8909 / +44(0)7538-248610 /
pressoffice@socialcohesion.co.uk

Source: The Centre For Social Cohesion

Press enquiries: +44(0)207-222-8909 / +44(0)7538-248610 / pressoffice at socialcohesion.co.uk