Universities will instead decide which staff,based on a risk assessment,must disclose their connections to foreign governments,military and intelligence agencies,as well as any financial support they receive for research from other countries.
The federal government has announced new foreign interference guidelines for universities,amid concerns about research theft by the Chinese Communist Party and other foreign actors.Andrew Quilty
The new foreign interference guidelines,to be announced by the federal government on Wednesday,reflect heightened concerns within the Coalition about research theft by the Chinese Communist Party and other foreign actors.
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said the imminent return of international students to Australian universities highlighted the importance of the guidelines as a mechanism to protect “free,open,transparent debate that is so vital to an Australian education”.
More than 145,000 international student visa holders are stuck overseas,the majority of whom are from China or India.
“The guidelines will protect universities,students and researchers from hostile foreign actors and intelligence services who have been known to target sensitive research,muzzle debate,and intimidate foreign students,” Ms Andrews said.
Echoing concerns raised by Australian security agencies,Education Minister Alan Tudge said universities were a target for foreign interference by “foreign actors using sophisticated and deceptive means to steal Australian research and intellectual property”.
The measures are,in part,a response to revelations by areport earlier this year,which documented accounts of Chinese international students being surveilled and harassed by their pro-Beijing classmates.
The guidelines cover a range of areas,including requiring universities to have robust cyber security strategies. They alsot for staff and students who are engaged in foreign collaboration to be given training on how to “recognise,mitigate and handle concerns of foreign interference”.
However,the final guidelines depart significantly from an earlier draft version that required all academics at every Australian university to disclose their foreign party membership for the past 10 years. It would have captured tens of thousands of academics,including those in low-risk research fields,and applied equally to members of the US Democratic Party and the Chinese Communist Party. The government was forced to abandon this requirement after a revolt from university leaders, that it was “a sledgehammer,blanket approach”.
The elite Group of Eight universities,which conduct 70 per cent of Australia’s university research,said the revised version represented a more “balanced approach” to managing risk,but hinted at concerns about how institutions would handle sensitive disclosures made by academics.
“This balanced approach is critical to safeguarding our place as world research leaders while also being proactive to any potential threats. It is also important to acknowledge that some of the increased measures outlined in the refreshed guidelines could themselves create additional risk,and these also need to be managed in partnership with the government,” chief executive Vicki Thomson said.
The guidelines still include new declaration of interest requirements,with universities to ask at-risk staff three disclosure questions. Staff will be required to declare whether they are receiving “any financial support (cash or in-kind) for education or research-related activities from a country other than Australia” and any affiliations “with a foreign government or foreign military,policing or
intelligence organisation”. They must also declare whether they hold any positions at overseas universities including membership of foreign talent programs,with researchers in high risk areas such as sensitive technologies requested to make disclosures dating back five years.
“Universities should determine which staff are asked these questions in accordance with a university’s assessment of its risk,” the guidelines state.
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