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Chinese officials carried out a campaign of intimidation against a UK university to prevent research into alleged human rights violations from being published.
Internal emails seen by the Financial Times reveal that staff at Sheffield Hallam University raised concerns about publishing research into forced labour in Xinjiang after China blocked access to the university’s websites, limiting its ability to recruit students.
Last year, Sheffield Hallam decided not to publish the final paper by Laura Murphy, professor of Human Rights and Contemporary Slavery, but has since approved her latest research. The paper has instead been published by Global Rights Compliance.
Details of China’s intimidation have come to light following a subject access request by Murphy, who had initiated legal proceedings against the university over failure to protect academic freedom.
Sheffield Hallam said its decision reflected a “complex set of circumstances”, adding it would “robustly defend the academic freedom of our staff in accordance with legislation”.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the decision was not based on commercial interests in China,” it added. “Regardless, China is not a significant international student market for the University.”
Emails from July 2024 reveal concerns that a block on access to university websites in China since August 2022 had “undoubtedly had a negative impact” on recruitment, which had already “fallen significantly” as “a result of the research but also changes in the market during and after the pandemic”.
Sheffield Hallam’s office in China was also visited by “three officers of the National Security Service” who questioned a member of staff for two hours. “The tone was threatening with a clear message . . . to stop the research,” the emails noted.
University administrators called for a review of engagement in China, noting that business and research interests were “now untenable bedfellows”.
The number of Chinese enrolments at Sheffield Hallam declined from 225 in 2022-23 to 170 in 2023-24 and 73 in 2024-25, official data shows. China accounted for 1.7 per cent of international enrolments this year, the university said.
China is a key recruitment market for a large number of UK universities, raising concerns about vulnerability to geopolitical and economic shifts as the sector battles to stabilise its finances.
Murphy said on Monday that as long as UK universities remained “desperately underfunded”, they would remain “vulnerable to this kind of influence”.
“We cannot have UK universities acting as the long arm of the PRC government,” she added.
UK education and Foreign Office ministers have raised concerns about academic freedoms with the Chinese foreign secretary and a senior education official.
A Downing Street spokesperson said on Monday: “It is absolutely unacceptable for any foreign state to intimidate, harass or harm individuals in the UK, and the freedom and independence of our academic institutions is sacrosanct. In June, the Office for Students introduced new guidance to make clear that universities shouldn’t tolerate attempts by foreign states to suppress freedom of speech and academic freedom.”
“And even before this, universities were instructed that any action undermining academic freedom or institutional autonomy was unacceptable. After learning of this case, government ministers raised it with Beijing, and we welcome the university’s decision to support this research,” the spokesperson added.
“This is in line with the consistent, long-term and strategic approach we are taking to managing the UK’s relations with China.”
The Chinese embassy in London said Sheffield Hallam University’s Helena Kennedy Centre had released “multiple fake reports on Xinjiang that are seriously flawed” and “acted as a vehicle for politicised and disinformation-driven narratives deployed by anti-China forces”.
Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute think-tank, said academic freedom was “a defining feature of western universities” and that any institution that failed to protect these freedoms was “pulling the rug from beneath itself”.
