Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to protect universities from influence through donations from people connected to the Communist Party of China.
The security guidelines commissioned at my request and published by Universities UK in October 2020, ‘Managing risks in internationalisation: security-related issues’, advise universities on engaging in secure international collaborations: https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/Reports/managing-risks-in-internationalisation.pdf. This includes a recommendation that due diligence should be conducted on all international partnerships, including donations. Universities due diligence processes should consider reputational, ethical and security risks. As autonomous institutions, universities will have their own fundraising and gift acceptance policies in place.