Students to be trained to spot foreign interference

University students will be trained to spots threats of foreign interference on campus and report them to authorities under proposed new rules aimed at strengthening Australian universities’ responsibilities for countering Chinese government influence on campuses, writes Lisa Visentin for The Sydney Morning Herald.

Academics and students taking part in research collaborations with overseas institutions will be given specific training on how to “recognise, mitigate and handle concerns of foreign interference”.

The draft guidelines for universities have been drawn up in the wake of concern raised by security agencies about the potential theft of critical research. However, they have already received strong pushback from university leaders furious over a planned requirement for all academics to disclose membership of foreign political parties in the past decade.
Full story on The Sydney Morning Herald site