Australian university staff refuse China’s request for passport information to teach joint class in Sydney
- Chinese students at Hebei Normal University complete their final year of a joint programme at University of Technology Sydney
- The Chinese university – which is jointly supported by the Ministry of Education – demanded details of the staff who would teach visiting students
Academics at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) have refused a demand from the Chinese Ministry of Education for their passport numbers and dates of birth, to be able to continue to teach a joint Chinese-Australian course in Sydney.
Twenty-one UTS academic staff were told they were required to disclose their passport numbers and dates of birth as part of a Chinese government review of a biotechnology course run jointly by UTS and the Hebei Normal University (HNU), near Beijing in northern China.
Chinese students complete three years of the joint programme at HNU before completing a final year at UTS.
An email from the Chinese university – which is jointly supported by the Hebei provincial government and the Chinese Ministry of Education – demanded details of the UTS staff who would teach the students in their fourth year. HNU said it was to fulfil accreditation requirements.
The details included academic qualifications and professional experience but also passport numbers and dates of birth.
Several academics wrote to the UTS course coordinator, associate dean Professor Graham Nicholson, refusing to provide the details and arguing the demand from the Chinese university was an “overreach”.