Officials from BAE Systems, Leonardo and Thales sit on advisory committees that oversee the “strategic direction” of academic departments in the U.K., reports Martin Williams.
Avenue Campus, University of Southampton. (FlickScully/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0)
By Martin Williams
Declassified UK
Arms industry executives have been given direct influence over British university courses, Declassified can reveal.
BAE Systems, Leonardo, Thales and Rolls-Royce are among the firms who have been invited to sit on at least 53 university advisory committees across the country.
They are usually asked to provide “strategic direction” for academic departments — and sometimes also review the progress of research projects.
Using the Freedom of Information Act, Declassified found that at least 21 universities had asked arms companies to sit on their committees. They include the universities of Southampton, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leicester, Cardiff, York and Queens University Belfast.
Some institutions boast that the setup allows them to “respond to the needs of employers.” The minutes of one committee meeting show that arms executives — along with officials from other companies — were thanked for “ensuring that our programmes fit industry requirements and demand.”
During a meeting at the University of Hull, an official from BAE Systems said they would “welcome applications” from students for “industrial placements,” adding that they would “like to develop the relationship.”
And a committee at the University of Cardiff discussed whether “industry” could “teach material to students,” noting that this would be “an appealing prospect for the School but would also offer good exposure for industry.”
They also agreed to meet with Rolls-Royce to discuss “research challenges.”
‘Disturbing’
Rolls-Royce Conway turbofan jet engine on display at the East Midland Aeropark in 2022. (Nimbus227 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0)
The finding comes two years after it was revealed how British universities had taken almost £100m from defence companies — including many that are arming Israel.
In one case, BAE Systems gave almost £50,000 in sponsorship to University College London (UCL) to fund its Centre for Ethics and Law — despite the company being accused of being party to alleged war crimes in Yemen in 2019.
Universities including Oxford, Cambridge and Sheffield were all found to have taken huge sums from arms firms – accepting £17m, £10m, and £42m respectively.
Sam Perlo-Freeman, of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), said:
“Declassified’s disturbing findings add to CAAT’s growing concern about deepening ties between UK universities and the military-industrial complex. As purveyors of a deeply corrupt and immoral trade that blights human life and the planet like no other, arms company executives should be nowhere near institutions of learning and intellectual freedom.”
He added:
“Universities should be treating arms trade representatives as pariahs. Instead, and thanks to Declassified, we now know that they sit on at least 53 different advisory committees across 21 universities. We have little doubt that this will have impacted academic freedom and the integrity of higher education research. The question is exactly how. We need answers.”
Responding to our investigation, the co-founder of Demiliterise Education, Jinsella Kennaway, said:
“Academic freedom is undermined while arms companies hold such influence over what gets researched, funded, and legitimised on campus. Students deserve pathways into work that make the world safer and more humane, not careers that contribute to mass killing and deepening global insecurity.”
“University leaders have a responsibility to ensure Britain’s knowledge centres contribute to saving lives, rather than allowing education to become a pipeline into the war economy.”
Martin Williams is Declassified UK’s chief investigator. He previously worked for The Guardian, Channel 4 News and openDemocracy, where he was U.K. investigations editor. His book, Parliament Ltd, exposed widespread corruption in British politics and sparked multiple inquiries by Westminster authorities.
This article is from Declassified UK.
Views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
