‘De-risking’ China is no easy matter for universities 对于英国大学“降低中国风险”并非易事

Nic Mitchell  20 September 2023

尼克·米切尔 2023 年 9 月 20 日

Having risked blowing the United Kingdom’s research relationship with Europe through a three-year post-Brexit delay in rejoining the multi-billion-euro Horizon programme, British universities now face being caught up in another international government fallout, this time with China – its fastest growing research partner.

由于英国脱欧后推迟三年重新加入数十亿欧元的地平线计划，英国大学冒着破坏英国与欧洲研究关系的风险，现在面临着另一次国际政府的影响，这次是与中国——这是最快的不断成长的研究伙伴。

With the United States and China locked in an intensifying contest for technological leadership that is drawing in the UK and many other countries, the threat that global scientific endeavour will be disrupted by geopolitics – with knock-on effects on student and academic mobility – has risen sharply over the last two years, warns a new report.

随着美国和中国围绕技术领导力的竞争愈演愈烈，英国和其他许多国家也受到影响，全球科学事业受到地缘政治干扰的威胁有所上升，这对学生和学术流动性产生连锁反应一份新的报告警告说，过去两年的情况急剧恶化。

Published by the Policy Institute at King’s College London, the report titled The China Question Revisited: ‘De-risking’ higher education and research, highlights how growing geopolitical tensions and national security concerns have prompted the British government to adopt a tougher stance toward Beijing.

伦敦国王学院政策研究所发布的题为《重温中国问题：高等教育和研究去风险》的报告强调了日益加剧的地缘政治紧张局势和国家安全担忧如何促使英国政府对北京采取更强硬的立场。

This is a big shift from the ‘golden era’ of UK-China relations under pre-Brexit Conservative premier David Cameron, who prioritised trade and investment over national security.

这与脱欧前保守党首相戴维·卡梅伦领导下的英中关系“黄金时代”发生了重大转变，卡梅伦将贸易和投资置于国家安全之上。 到目前为止，现任英国首相苏纳克一直抵制鹰派人士（包括英国议会保守党议员中的一些人）主张的中国与西方“脱钩”的呼吁。然而，5月份日本广岛七国集团峰会结束时，苏纳克确实将中国描述为全球安全与繁荣的最大挑战

So far, current UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has resisted calls for a ‘decoupling’ between China and the West, advocated by hawks including a number on his Conservative benches in Parliament. However, in May Sunak did describe China as the biggest challenge to global security and prosperity at the end of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan.

到目前为止，现任英国首相苏纳克一直抵制鹰派人士（包括英国议会保守党议员中的一些人）主张的中国与西方“脱钩”的呼吁。然而，5月份日本广岛七国集团峰会结束时，苏纳克确实将中国描述为全球安全与繁荣的最大挑战。

Important income for research universities 研究型大学的重要收入

This has helped to focus UK higher education and research stakeholders on the considerable challenges of ‘de-risking’ higher education and research engagement with China, which is now the single most important source of international fee income for the UK’s research-intensive universities.Chinese students are vital to the talent pipeline into research careers and a wider STEM skills base in the UK, says the report co-authored by Jonathan Adams, chief scientist at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate Analytics, Jo Johnson, a former Conservative minister of state for universities, science, research and innovation, and Dr Janet Ilieva, founder and director of Education Insight. Adams and Johnson are both visiting professors in the Policy Institute at King’s College London.

这有助于英国高等教育和研究利益相关者关注与中国的高等教育和研究合作“降低风险”所面临的巨大挑战，中国现在是英国研究密集型大学最重要的国际费用收入来源。这份由科睿唯安科学信息研究所首席科学家乔纳森·亚当斯 (Jonathan Adams) 和前保守党部长乔·约翰逊 (Jo Johnson) 共同撰写的报告称，学生对于英国进入研究职业的人才管道和更广泛的 STEM 技能基础至关重要。大学、科学、研究和创新国家，以及 Education Insight 创始人兼董事 Janet Ilieva 博士。亚当斯和约翰逊都是伦敦国王学院政策研究所的客座教授。

Turning to calls by the government and Office for Students (OfS), the higher education regulator in England, for universities to reduce their dependence on China, the report concludes that such measures have in some cases stalled or are going backwards.

转向政府和英格兰高等教育监管机构办公室（OfS）的呼吁，要求大学减少对中国的依赖，报告得出结论，这些措施在某些情况下已经停滞或者正在倒退。

OfS announced in June that it had written to 23 higher education providers with large numbers of students from China “to ensure they have contingency plans in case recruitment patterns change and there is a sudden drop in income from overseas students”.

OfS在六月宣布，已致信给有大量来自中国学生的23所高等教育机构，“确保它们有备选计划，以防招生模式发生变化，海外学生收入突然下降”。

Although the regulator did not name the institutions, it was clearly focusing on the Russell Group of research-intensive universities, given that 17 of the 18 higher education institutions with the most Chinese students on campus in 2021 to 2022 were Russell Group members.

尽管监管机构没有点名这些机构，但显然是在关注卢塞尔集团的研究型大学，因为在2021至2022年，18所中国学生最多的高等教育机构中，有17所是卢塞尔集团成员。

In 2021 to 2022 one fifth of UK higher education institutions hosted over four-fifths of the overall Chinese students in full-time education.

在2021至2022年，英国高等教育机构中有五分之一承载了超过四分之四的全日制中国学生。

University College London leads the pack, with almost 11,000 Chinese students out of a non-UK student body of around 24,000, followed by the universities of Glasgow, Manchester, and Edinburgh as well as King’s College London.

伦敦大学学院（University College London）名列前茅，非英国学生约为24,000人中有近11,000名来自中国，其次是格拉斯哥、曼彻斯特和爱丁堡大学，以及伦敦国王学院（King’s College London）。

While the Chinese student body remains the largest international group in the UK, it has declined slightly as international recruitment shifts from first degree to one-year taught masters programmes, which have seen exceptional growth in students from India and Nigeria, particularly for less-selective post-1992 institutions which charge lower international tuition fees.

尽管中国学生群体仍然是英国最大的国际群体，但随着国际招生重心从学士学位转向为期一年的硕士课程，中国学生群体略有下降。与此同时，来自印度和尼日利亚的学生在这些较不具选择性的1992年后成立的机构中，尤其是那些收取较低国际学费的机构中，取得了异常的增长。

Another major change since the full implementation of the Brexit withdrawal agreement in 2020 to 2021 has been the notable decline in EU countries as the top source markets for bachelor degree students, with the number of first degree EU students in the UK falling to 84,200 in 2021 to 2022, from 106,500 the previous year – a decline of 21%.

自2020至2021年完全实施脱欧退出协议以来，另一个重大变化是欧盟国家作为英国学士学位学生的主要来源市场明显下降，2021至2022年英国的首次欧盟学生人数降至84,200人，而前一年为106,500人，下降了21%。

There has also been a drop in EU demand for doctoral studies in the UK since Brexit, which has added to the dependence of the UK research base on Chinese doctoral students.

自脱欧以来，欧盟对英国博士研究的需求也出现下降，这加剧了英国研究基地对中国博士生的依赖。

The proportion of Chinese full-time doctoral entrants in UK higher education has increased significantly over the past five years, from 17% in 2017 to 2018 to 28% in 2021 to 2022, says the report.

报告称，过去五年来，中国全日制博士生在英国高等教育中的比例显著增加，从2017年至2018年的17%增至2021年至2022年的28%。

Ilieva, who looked specifically at geographical diversification and PhD students, told University World News: “The main point is that there is no other China or EU for PhD demand.”

Ilieva，专注于地理多元化和博士生的研究，告诉《世界大学新闻》：“主要问题是没有其他国家能像中国或欧盟那样对博士需求产生影响。”

She said: “PhD students are embedded in the research landscape of UK higher education and the study shows that they most likely follow through an academic career in the UK and actively contribute to the research outputs.

她说：“博士生融入了英国高等教育的研究领域，研究表明，他们很可能在英国继续学术职业，并积极为研究产出做出贡献。”

“Any disruption of the talent pipeline is likely to have a knock-on effect on the quality and quantity of UK research outputs.”

“任何人才管道的中断都可能对英国研究产出的质量和数量产生连锁影响。”

Not all commentators are pessimistic about the future. Dr Cheryl Yu, a consultant on UK-China international education, told University World News: “My perception of the UK-China relationship is that there is no direct conflict between the two countries; on the contrary, on the ground level, people enjoy working with each other, and are appreciative and respectful towards each other.

并非所有评论员都对未来持悲观态度。英中国际教育顾问Cheryl Yu博士告诉《世界大学新闻》：“我对英中关系的看法是两国之间没有直接冲突；相反，在实际层面上，人们喜欢互相合作，互相欣赏和尊重。

“The geopolitics between China and the United States means that more Chinese students may choose the UK as their study destination, and researchers and industries will also seek collaborative opportunities in the UK as an alternative.

“中美之间的地缘政治意味着更多的中国学生可能选择英国作为他们的学习目的地，研究人员和行业也将寻求在英国的合作机会作为另一种选择。

“International higher education is very much a market-driven industry, and the UK higher education sector should really think of this as an opportunity to engage with the second-largest economy in the world for mutual benefits,” Yu said.

“国际高等教育在很大程度上是一个市场驱动的行业，英国高等教育部门应该真正将其视为与世界第二大经济体互利合作的机会，” Yu说。

“International education is all about exchanging ideas and collaboration, which should not become political.”

“国际教育关乎交流思想和合作，不应该变得政治化。”