Next steps to combat foreign interference at Australian universities

THE Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) has presented its recommendations to combat foreign interference at Australian universities and in the research sector.

In its unanimous and bipartisan Report into national security risks affecting the Australian higher education and research sector, the committee has made 27 recommendations to address the serious threats posed by foreign interference to Austrlaia's most critical research institutions.

The recommendations are targeted at securing sensitive, taxpayer-funded research and protecting student safety on campus.

Among its recommendations, the committee has recognised the risks associated with Chinese Government-funded Confucius Institutes to academic freedom and student welfare, and calls on universities and the Foreign Minister to take steps to mitigate them. 

Similarly, the committee has asked the Foreign Minister to also decide the future of a $10 million contract between Monash University and COMAC – a Chinese Government-owned aviation company that has been linked to a global industrial cyber espionage campaign and been sanctioned by the US government.

The committee recommends a range of measures to protect students from threats to their freedom of speech, association and physical safety. This includes documenting and reporting incidents of harassment, intimidation and censorship resulting from foreign interference, as well as new penalties for foreign interference activities on campus, including reporting on fellow students to foreign governments.

The committee has also called for:

• A risk-based audit which samples Australian Research Council grants over the past decade to determine exposure associated with participation in talent recruitment programs, noting the Thousand Talents Program is one amongst many. Adequacy of existing penalties, including grant fraud, should also be investigated.
• Banning employees of government departments and agencies from participating in talent-recruitment programs.
• Training on national security issues for universities’ staff and students.
• Communicating Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme requirements to foreign student associations operating at Australian universities and investigating possible cases of non-compliance.

Committee chair Senator James Paterson said that while the sector has made progress in addressing national security concerns, foreign interference on campus remains a serious threat, and more work has to be done to safeguard our students and education institutions.

"There’s no question that students and academics have faced a sustained campaign of intimidation, harassment, censorship and intelligence gathering by foreign state governments. This resulted in the transfer of sensitive research to authoritarian regimes and their militaries and threats to the safety of domestic and international students," Senator Paterson said.

"While efforts have been made to strengthen the sector’s awareness and resilience to these threats, there is a great deal more to do to secure sensitive, taxpayer-funded research, and protect students on campus.

"These bipartisan reforms build on the work already undertaken and I look forward to a continued, concerted effort by government and sector to combat these escalating threats," Senator Paterson said.

Further information on the inquiry can be obtained from the committee’s website.

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