As first reported in the Telegraph, FSU member and University College London (UCL) academic Michelle Shipworth has been banned from teaching her own course, after a Chinese student complained that discussing modern slavery in China was too “provocative”. Incredibly, UCL sided with students who said they were “distressed” by her handling of the topic, and imposed a raft of restrictions on Michelle in order to ensure their courses remained “commercially viable” to Chinese students.
Michelle Shipworth is an Associate Professor at UCL’s Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources, and has taught at the institution since 2009.
Michelle found herself under investigation after a seminar last October examining data from the Global Slavery Index 2014. The seminar forms part of her ‘Data Detectives’ training module, and is designed to prepare students for an assignment which external examiners have described as “particularly innovative” and “excellent”, and her Faculty’s teaching lead has previously stated is worthy of a teaching award.
Last year there were reports about contracts that scholarship students from China had to sign. It’s not too far a stretch that students reported the professor for fear of repercussions based on such contracts.
https://www.dw.com/en/how-china-controls-its-top-students-in-germany/a-64901849
In Sweden, two universities cut ties with China over this:
Tens of Thousands of Students Pledge Loyalty to Beijing Before Arriving Abroad (January 2023)
Independent director and current affairs commentator Wang Longmeng said it is still worth understanding the practical meaning of phrases [in the students’ loyalty pledge agreements] like “serving your country” and “loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party,” even if the practice has been going on for years.
“The Western media have reported many cases of Chinese students and scholars stealing high-tech military technologies, and besieging protesters who supported Hong Kong’s anti-extradition protests,” Wang said. “A lot of people who have been awarded Chinese government scholarships to study abroad have basically been recruited by the state, and these agreements are the best proof of that.”
He likened the contracts to “selling one’s soul to the devil.”
“Their families are destined to become hostages,” he said. “Universities in democratic countries should refuse to cooperate with institutions like the China Scholarship Council, otherwise they will become accomplices in that hostage-taking.”
