Foreign Interference in Higher Education

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Since 2016, foreign interference has become a matter of broad public concern in the United States. What started as allegations of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election soon transformed into fears about global adversaries’ abilities to exert undue influence on other areas of national life. A variety of policy responses followed, in phases. Near the end of 2018, the Department of Justice launched the China Initiative, a wide-ranging dragnet to stifle economic espionage. The effort would ensnare higher education institutions, faculty, and students. In 2020, the Department of Education began investigating higher education institutions for failure to disclose foreign contributions. The government’s newfound interest in enforcing an overlooked regulation prompted outcries from the higher education lobby which regards donor anonymity as critical to securing private funds. By the Summer of 2022, the U.S. Congress was considering legislation specifically aimed at curbing foreign interference in higher education. Several U.S. states had already passed similar laws. The government and conservative media championed these measures as necessary to address real problems. Higher education actors largely saw them as misguided responses that succeeded more in ruining careers and threatening revenue streams than strengthening national security. Liberals’ expectations that Democratic control of the executive and legislative bodies, along with a mixed record of prosecutorial success in China Initiative cases, would redirect national attention elsewhere have not materialized. Still, concerns about the deleterious impacts of academic espionage on economic competitiveness and national security mean that foreign interference has become a bi-partisan issue. The idea of foreign interference in higher education now operates within the United States as a fait accompli.
Although the apprehension is particularly acute in the United States, American anxiety is not unique. Foreign interference has also become a notable phenomenon in Europe, Asia, and Australia. Responding to growing concerns, the European Union issued guidelines in January 2022 to mitigate foreign interference in university research. These worries may be well founded. That same month, an uproar began in the Netherlands when reports surfaced that a Chinese-funded research center at the Free University of Amsterdam was promoting Chinese propaganda about human rights. Dutch politicians are now calling for foreign interference legislation to preserve the autonomy of higher education institutions and ensure academic freedom. Australia, Singapore, and numerous other countries have already passed foreign interference laws. The trend may well continue to diffuse across the globe.
The literature on foreign interference indicates that higher education is a target of malign actors for several reasons: universities are sites of classified research with implications for economic, technological, and military advancement; faculty and administrators shape public opinion and influence government policy; ideas in foreign scholarship can undermine official national narratives; and minority students abroad have greater access to non-sanctioned support networks.
This panel convenes three contributors to a special issue of the Journal of Comparative International Higher Education, the official journal of the Higher Education SIG, on foreign interference. Each scholar brings a different methodological approach and theoretical perspective to the subject. [redacted] developed original datasets of news media coverage and legislation on foreign interference to analyze the global English-language public discourse and compare national policy responses. [redacted] leverages the concepts of sharp power and right-wing authoritarianism to explain the intensification of interest in foreign interference. [find] that China is the primary source of concern for most countries who allege foreign interference. In the United States, much of the furor is driven by an emboldened, conspiratorial right-wing which sees universities in general and international education in particular as antithetical to its nationalist and isolationist aims.
[redacted] focuses on the impact of controversial Chinese talent recruitment programs by conducting a bibliometric analysis of research products associated with the Thousand Talents Plan. [redacted] show that knowledge outputs from scholars in the plan grew until 2018 when an international outcry about the programs’ intentions peaked. Stakeholders in Western societies argued that these talent recruitment efforts take advantage of the open international system, and some even called it espionage. At its height, though, the plan only accounted for one percent of Chinese scholarship. [redacted] caution that results from the bibliometric analysis will not alleviate concerns from policymakers regarding espionage and technical theft levied at these Talents programs.
[redacted] look at foreign interference through the lens of national security. [redacted] use the comparative case study model to examine the role of international education in the national security strategies of the United States and Canada. [redacted] examined contemporary and historic policy documents in these countries and supplemented them with 20 interviews with scholars in the public diplomacy field, international education policy makers and advocates in government and non-government organizations and journalists focused on IE coverage in both countries. [redacted] highlight 1) the diminishing role of the university as a distinct and valued non-state actor, 2) the weakening of foreign policy as an outward looking, distinctly international investment, and 3) the problem with choosing isolation over engagement as a strategy.
These scholars’ combined emphases on public discourse, knowledge products, and national security provide a well-rounded introduction to the issues surrounding foreign interference in higher education. Together they contend that foreign interference in higher education is an emerging issue with staying power. It has already become a popular topic in the public domain, but scholars can enrich the discourse with rigorous empirical and conceptual analyses. The multi-faceted nature of the subject—with implications for faculty, students, staff, institutions, and systems—makes it a rich area for further study. The theme for CIES 2023 is “Improving Education for a More Equitable World,” calling for the global community to come together in search for collective solutions current racial, geographic, and historical inequalities, along with climate change and other looming calamities. However, as the research in this panel illustrates, global cooperation can easily be derailed due to geopolitical distrust across various educational sectors. Given the global nature of the concern, comparative study offers a particularly promising approach to inquiry. Panelists will elaborate on the significance of the topic, review their research, reflect on related contemporary trends, and answer audience questions.

Sub Unit

• Higher Education SIG

Chair

• Kyle Long, Northwestern University

Individual Presentations

• Public Discourse and Public Policy on Foreign Interference in Higher Education - Kyle Long, Northwestern University

• Espionage or Innovation? Exploring China’s Thousand Talents Brand Era through Bibliometrics - Ryan Allen, Soka University of America