Academics and researchers involved in cutting-edge science at British universities are to be vetted by the security services, under government plans to tackle Chinese espionage.
The director-general of MI5 has warned vice-chancellors that hostile states are actively targeting universities to steal technology that can “deliver their authoritarian, military and commercial priorities”.
It follows a secret review into vulnerabilities of the UK’s higher education sector carried out by the security services, which concluded that foreign states such as China are attempting to steal sensitive research. This, it found, was “risking UK national security”, particularly in areas of research which had both civilian and military applications.
As a result, ministers are consulting on a new system of government vetting that would see the security services investigate the
