From The ABC comes more proof that Australian universities are dumbing down courses, and selling their souls, for Chinese international students:
A Sydney university has recommended staff self-censor teaching material to keep students in China enrolled during the pandemic.
The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) conducted a working group in February to discuss how to keep Chinese international students enrolled by teaching them online.
An internal university memo obtained by the ABC highlighted concerns the Chinese Government may “turn off” all communication from the university over any teaching material that may be seen as politically sensitive.
The university’s working group recommended teaching material avoid any mention of topics which may be politically inaccurate, citing territories of China as one example.
UTS said there have been no issues with teaching students online so far.
This aligns with Clive Hamilton’s testimony last month:
…universities are vital to the [CCP] party’s campaign to change the global conversation about China and its role in the world. It has many tools at its disposal. Chinese diplomats do not hesitate to phone vice chancellors to express their displeasure and make veiled threats about the revenue they derive from Chinese students and joint programs with Chinese universities.
They pressure universities to “persuade” China scholars who criticise Beijing to pipe down and if that doesn’t work the scholars know their visas to do research in China might be denied.
Some Chinese students dob in their lecturers if they deviate from China’s position, such as where to draw boundaries in disputed regions, and even start social media campaigns denouncing the lecturer’s “anti-China” stance.
One of the biggest levers that Beijing can pull is the one provided by Confucius Institutes. It’s partly the money the Chinese Government provides to teach Chinese language and culture. But perhaps more important are the personal “friendships” that university bosses develop with their counterparts in China. They don’t want to upset their friends.
The institutes are ostensibly devoted to teaching Chinese language and promoting Chinese culture. In fact, they are a part of the CCP’s global program of “discourse management”.
Australia’s universities didn’t get the biggest concentration of Chinese students in the world without compromising their entry and teaching standards, freedom of speech, and principles:
The federal government must:
- cap international student numbers, enforce freedom of speech protocols, and tighten entry standards;
- lift public funding; and
- ban the Confucius Institutes or kick them off campus at minimum. The US and Sweden are systematically shutting them already.
