Universities’ responsibilities to respect and protect human rights transnationally: A critical discussion of collaboration and exchange between the UK and China

Abstract

Engaging with a debate on universities’ responsibilities to protect human rights amidst rising concern about the influence of autocratically governed China, we argue that the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights apply to universities, be it because universities are business enterprises, or because the principles contained in the UNGP are a fortiori relevant to universities. Drawing on the example of UK universities, we show that the UNGP are relevant for universities as “education providers and exporters” to protect academic freedom against China’s transnational repression. A review of selected current ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ law documents shows not only that to protect academic freedom, there is a need to further concretize the UNGP for the higher education sector, but also that effective protection requires corrections to universities’ overly commercialised funding structures.