British universities have been accused of censorship for agreeing to complywith Chinese internet censorship to offer remote courses to international students.<\/p>\n
The courses are offered throughsoftware that allows Chinese students who would normally study in the UK to continue their studies remotely.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
These are placed on an allow list of course materials. The spokesperson added none of these links have been blocked.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The BBC first reported universities would by complying with Chinese internet rules.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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