Freedom of expression and academic autonomy underpin research and teaching at Macquarie University, so it is vital staff and students are safe from harassment, intimidation, bullying, or doxing behaviours, especially where these behaviours might constitute foreign interference.
As students return for Session 2 they are being reminded of the University’s commitment to free speech and of ways to report inappropriate behaviour.
Pro Vice Chancellor (Research Services) Ross McLennan says, “the value of a university as a public institution depends upon its ability and determination to create new knowledge and understanding, to challenge accepted ideas, test novel hypotheses, and encourage rigorous academic debate.”
“Free expression is critical to our culture, so staff and students are encouraged to report incidences where they feel this is being impinged. As an institution, we are actively monitoring these events and will report all incidents of suspected foreign interference in our community as appropriate.”
As a requirement of the federal government’s Guidelines to Counter Foreign Interference, updated in 2021, Australian universities must develop additional actions to better align their resilience to foreign interference.
Macquarie offers training for staff engaged in foreign collaboration or other partnership activities at risk of interference.
That training addresses how to recognise, mitigate and handle concerns of foreign interference.
These behaviours in the higher education context are described in the Human Rights Watch 2021 report ‘They Don’t Understand the Fear We Have‘ and in the 2022 Parliamentary Joint Committee of Intelligence and Security’s report ‘Inquiry into national security risks affecting the Australian higher education and research sector‘.
Tools have been developed to assist researchers in self-assessing when to seek advice from the National Security and Defence team.
Macquarie University has established a procedure for reviewing and controlling the foreign interference risk for research projects.
Anyone can report suspected foreign interference.
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