Elite universities submit 4000 foreign deals for Marise Payne to scrutinise and possibly cancel

More than 6000 university deals with foreign powers are being scrutinised by Foreign Minister Marise Payne.

The University of Sydney confirmed it had submitted foreign deals. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

More than 6000 university deals with foreign powers are being scrutinised by Foreign Minister Marise Payne, as she considers vetoing any contrary to the national interest.

The Group of Eight universities alone have submitted more than 4000 foreign deals, including agreements to operate China-linked Confucius Institutes, as the university sector seeks to re-engage with the Morrison government over national security.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was also notified of more than 2000 foreign arrangements from the nation’s 30 other higher education institutions before the deadline on Friday.

DFAT will now comb through the university sector’s arrangements and memorandums of understanding with foreign entities before Senator Payne makes a determination to cancel any of them, as she did in April with the Victorian government’s Belt and Road deal with Beijing.

“I recognise the work universities have put into the (Foreign Arrangements) Scheme and appreciate their engagement,” Senator Payne said.

“Universities themselves now have full visibility of their international activity across their various faculties. This will result in improved governance and due diligence of their foreign agreements.”

The mass collation of foreign deals comes after more than 2000 pieces of written correspondence and 100 meetings and briefings from DFAT for states, local councils and universities.

Go8 chief executive Vicki Thomson said attempts to meet the Friday deadline set by the Foreign Relations Act was a major task for the eight sandstones – which include the University of Sydney and University of Melbourne – and more deals would need to be submitted.

“This process has been a huge logistic and administrative challenge, with the complexity of the legislation putting potentially hundreds of thousands of person-to-person ‘agreements’ and other minor arrangements in the frame,” she said. “There is, however, more to be done as some universities were required to review in detail as many as 75 agreements for every one agreement lodged with the scheme.”

The Foreign Relations Act – which orders states, local councils and universities to submit all overseas deals to the Foreign Minister – was brought in amid concerns about links between university researchers and the Chinese military.

A University of Queensland spokeswoman on Tuesday said UQ had submitted 587 foreign agreements and 71 prospective deals to DFAT. The University of Melbourne said it had submitted “several hundred” agreements, and the University of Western Australia said it submitted 180 deals, which were mostly with Chinese partners.

The Australian National University, Monash University and the University of Sydney also confirmed they had submitted foreign arrangements, but would not give any numerical details.

University leaders have been prepared for their on-campus Confucius Institutes to be cancelled by the Foreign Minister.

The institutes purport to be Chinese cultural and language study centres but have been linked with Beijing’s attempts to influence foreign universities.

The University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, University of Adelaide, UNSW, UWA, and the University of Queensland all have Confucius Institutes, and have submitted their contracts for review. The higher education sector unsuccessfully lobbied to be exempted from the Foreign Relations Act over concerns the law was too broad.

Ms Thomson on Tuesday said some foreign partners had begun to either withdraw or pause deals with Australian universities due to the legislation. “The impact of this legislation has not gone unnoticed by current and potential international partners of Go8 universities,” she said.

“A number have withdrawn from agreements, not because of any issues concerning alignment with Australia’s foreign policy, but on the basis of complexity and what they perceive (to be) unwarranted government overreach into the university sector.”