UK universities accused of censorship by complying with China – Telegraph.co.uk

British universities have been accused of censorship for agreeing to complywith Chinese internet censorship to offer remote courses to international students.

The courses are offered throughsoftware that allows Chinese students who would normally study in the UK to continue their studies remotely.

However, the software has to comply with strict Chinese internet firewalls. This means students are limited to only course material that has been approved by Beijing.

The software is developed by JISC, a digital learning not-for-profit. The pilot programme involves Kings College London, Queen Mary, York University and Southampton University.

JISCs software, which has been built with Chinese technology giant Alibaba, provides course materials to students in China. A spokesperson said traffic has to travel through three international gateways and will only provide access to learning materials that are part of the curriculum specified by the UK institution.

These are placed on an allow list of course materials. The spokesperson added none of these links have been blocked.

A Universities UK spokesperson said academic freedom was of utmost importance adding it was not aware of any alteration to course content to comply with local laws.

The BBC first reported universities would by complying with Chinese internet rules.

China sceptics warned Britains universities could be conducting self-censorship by only allowing access to certain course approved materials to comply with local internet law.

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UK universities accused of censorship by complying with China - Telegraph.co.uk