Over the last four years, the total value of Chinese funding flowing into British universities is estimated at nearly £50M. This investment has been concentrated within some of the UK’s top institutions, with Oxford being the largest beneficiary, receiving £24M. Notably, £3.3M of this amount came from undisclosed Chinese sources, raising concerns about transparency.
The University of Oxford also received £1.8M from Sichuan University, which has been labelled as "very high risk" by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute for its links to China’s nuclear weapons and cyber-espionage programmes. The US government Entity List also lists the University as an alias for China’s primary nuclear warheads research facility - the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics.
Cambridge University also received between £12M and £19M from Chinese sources, £2M of which came from the Beijing Institute of Aerospace Control Devices, a state-owned corporation at the forefront of military drone research and production.
The University of Edinburgh has received between £5.3M and £6.2M in Chinese investment, including up to £500,000 from Huawei, the Chinese tech giant banned from UK telecommunications infrastructure in 2020 due to concerns over its ties to the Chinese government.
Sheffield University, meanwhile, secured £2.4M, including £360,000 from the CRRC Zhuzhou Institute - a subsidiary of the China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation, designated by the US Department of Defence as a Chinese military entity.
These investments raise concerns about the growing influence of Chinese-backed funding in UK universities, particularly as they involve companies with links to the Chinese Communist Party and its strategic interests.
The financial reliance on Chinese investment is not limited to research funding. A crucial source of income for monetarily constrained UK universities comes from the growing number of Chinese international students.
According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), the number of Chinese students attending UK universities rose by 41% between 2017 and 2021, reaching over 150,000 students. Chinese students now account for 22.3% of the total international student population in the UK.
This comes at a time when three-quarters of UK academic institutions are purportedly facing financial issues in 2025 despite recent increases to domestic tuition fees. Overseas students, with tuition fees nearly two and a half times higher than domestic students, account for 30% or more of the UK’s total university income.
On top of this, many communities, particularly resurgent post-industrial cities such as Sheffield, Durham, and Newcastle, have become increasingly dependent on student spending, granting China tacit economic influence.
Despite this growing dependence, University leaders have insisted that they carefully scrutinise all funding and collaborations. An Oxford spokesperson rejected suggestions that its academic independence is at risk, stating that its funders have no influence over its research decisions.
Similarly, a Cambridge spokesperson pointed out that less than 1% of its annual research grant comes from Chinese investment, and all funds received are heavily scrutinised.
Ben Moore, head of international policy at the Russell Group, defended international partnerships, stating that UK universities work closely with UK intelligence services to “de-risk” collaborations and ensure national security. Critics, meanwhile, argue that the growing reliance on Chinese funding and student spending could have serious consequences for academic freedom.
Former Conservative Party leader and co-chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, has warned that UK universities are becoming too dependent on Chinese money, leading to academics "kowtowing" to the Chinese state. Sir Iain said that this dependency could stifle free speech, particularly in areas related to China’s human rights abuses.
While none of these universities are accused of any related wrongdoing, including improperly accepting funds, China's rising influence on UK higher education means UK universities now find themselves balancing desperately needed investment with concerns over academic independence and national security.