August 21, 2024
The university where future leaders of the Australian Defence Force are sent to study has moved to limit research collaboration with China, including ending visits from academics to its Canberra campus, amid growing military tensions with Beijing.
Since the 1980s, the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has provided academic education to officer and midshipman cadets at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) in Canberra, and postgraduate programs for Defence civilians and other students.
Until recently, a large proportion of international students at UNSW Canberra were from China, and the university, which is one of the ADF's tertiary education providers, still offers lucrative PhD scholarships to Dongguan University in Guangdong province.
Now, the ABC can reveal that in recent weeks UNSW Canberra has informed its staff that "collaborative research projects involving academics affiliated with Chinese universities will not be supported", although UNSW Sydney is not affected.
An internal message sent to UNSW Canberra's academic schools advises that the university will no longer take the lead for projects involving Chinese universities, but the ABC understands research with China is still permitted if approved.
Several postgraduate courses offered at UNSW Canberra are linked to the ADF, including the Master of Explosive Ordnance, which is taught to defence staff working at Australia's new Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) Enterprise.
In a statement, UNSW Canberra told the ABC, "Any university-level collaborations which UNSW seeks with countries or institutions considered high-risk are thoroughly risk-managed" through various government agencies.
"UNSW researchers engage in collaborative research with many international partners as part of the university's work as a globally connected institution. UNSW Canberra is in a unique position given that the faculty is located at the Australian Defence Force Academy.
"UNSW takes its security and compliance obligations very seriously and requires its academics to regularly disclose their individual foreign affiliations and helps academics risk manage collaborations with partners considered high-risk or involving critical technologies."
Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson has welcomed UNSW Canberra's recent decision but has called for the institution to now remove any academics on staff with ties to the Chinese government.
"Three years on from the intelligence committee's inquiry into national security risks in higher education, we still have much more work to do," Senator Paterson said.
"Of all our universities, UNSW's campus at ADFA should be the most secure — it's where our future defence force leaders are trained," the former chair of parliament's intelligence committee added.
"No academic with ties to the Chinese government should be employed there with access to the next generation of ADF officers. Defence must issue an urgent 'please explain' to UNSW about these apparent connections and any security risk they present."
Last year, Australian universities expressed concerns about a relaxation of defence export rules for AUKUS partner nations, warning it would also create strict new penalties for unauthorised collaborations with researchers outside the US or UK.
