Good evening! This week's edition of the In Common newsletter comes from Rory Hamilton, communications co-ordinator at Common Weal
Last week, it was announced that 35 universities across the UK, including Edinburgh, Glasgow and Strathclyde universities in Scotland, had founded the "Defence Universities Alliance" (DUA) as part of an £182 million investment by the UK Government in defence research, skills and careers.
In the context of a higher education funding crisis, it might be appealing to see all funding as good funding, but this new alliance should raise alarm bells, not only for the undemocratic way in which universities themselves have signed up to the group, but also for the increasing militarisation of campuses this will produce.
The UK Government is pitching this as part of a "whole of society" approach which argues that we face heightened threats to national security which necessitate a “reorientation of society and institutions towards UK defence and national security outcomes.”
We are being told repeatedly in public discourse that we should prepare for war , and we are told that the preparation for war will be the boost our economy needs.
Military interventionism almost always results in the unnecessary deaths of ordinary people the world over, and time and again we have seen war devastate countries’ infrastructure in the name of "peace" and "democracy" only to ride roughshod over the democratic demands and rights of the very people we are supposed to have been helping.
Demanding the “whole of society” pitches in to brace for battle (which incidentally, none of us want), pits you and me, our families and our neighbours against people just like us, against whom we have no antagonism. We must reject this.
In addition to this whole of society approach, the DUA also seeks to “actively grow research and development activity and capacity in defence fields and technology to support defence aims and objectives.”
This fundamentally changes the role of universities away from institutions of knowledge, learning and public good, towards militarisation and research which supports violence and destruction.
By linking university funding streams to the defence sector, not only does this put pressure on researchers and university departments to redirect their research priorities away from addressing social and environmental needs, but also compromises the institutional independence of universities themselves.
University of Manchester Vice-Chancellor, Duncan Ivison, said as much in his supporting statement, “we will better align with government and industry to create more opportunities for researchers and students.”
How are universities meant to serve spaces of critical enquiry where university leadership signs up to meet the needs of private industry whose motives you would hardly call "public good"?
Indeed, as part of the DUA charter, universities are expected to “encourage a greater proportion of skilled graduates to consider pursuing roles in the defence sector.” And while couched in the language of "balanced portfolios" and "impartial careers guidance", the creation of a pipeline to defence and security careers is blatant, with the charter demanding members “ensure that careers in the defence sector are promoted,” that they will “support the attendance of defence sector firms and the Armed Forces at careers events,” and that the alliance will “support the provision of defence and national security relevant courses.”
Such demands turn universities into extensions of military infrastructure and undermines the independence of the institutions, many of whom are already under pressure to cut humanities and social science courses (and by extension jobs).
Students and researchers can hardly have freedom of academic enquiry when options are limited to what the UK Government and the Defence Universities Alliance believe to be productive avenues of study and research.
All of this, while the University of Glasgow already invests £5.2 million into arms companies , in addition to its existing research and academic partnerships with arms companies worth £69m. Both of which were rejected by students in a referendum held by the SRC (Student Representative Council) last year, seeing nearly 90% of students vote in favour of divestment from companies earning more than 10% of their revenue from the arms and defence industry.
The SRC described the university’s decision to join the alliance as in “continued contempt for student views on the university’s relationship with the arms and defence sector.” Alarmingly, they go on to say in their statement that no dialogue was held between University Senior Management and the SRC.
The funding crisis across UK and Scottish universities has already shown university leaders to be incompetent and self-interested with a blatant disregard for transparency. This latest episode underlines the reality that those university leaders have completely hollowed out our institutions of knowledge.
The idea that the university exists to act in the interests of the common good is now dead, and unless we wrest back democratic control into the hands of the people who really make universities communities of learning, they will become machines of war.
