Will universities declare their China funding?

Britain’s leading universities are just one sector having to grapple with the recent decline in UK-China relations. Barely six years ago David Cameron was speaking of a new ‘golden age’ of partnership between the two nations but all that has changed after the Hong Kong crackdown and Xinjiang atrocities. Now there is pressure in both political and academic circles for greater transparency from Russell Group universities about their funding sources, amid increasing concern about the reliance of the UK’s academic institutions on Chinese money.

For Steerpike understands that Tory backbenchers are considering whether to table amendments to the Higher Education Bill to improve transparency for the higher education sector. Cross-party support would be likely, given Labour’s demands for the government to take a tougher line on China. The legislation is expected to return to the Commons in the spring for its third reading, with former Conservative party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith among those MPs backing such calls.