Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of requiring universities to conduct human rights due diligence checks when offering security-related courses to organisations based in countries listed as a human rights priority in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office's report entitled Human Rights and Democracy Report 2022, published on 13 July 2023.

The UK is a leading advocate for human rights around the world, and we remain committed to the promotion of universal human rights. Universities attract international engagement from across the world, and this global reach plays an important part in promoting British values, such as the rule of law and respect for human rights.

Higher education (HE) providers are autonomous bodies, independent from government, and therefore responsible for their own policies and procedures.

However, English HE providers must uphold applicable public interest governance principles, including on free speech, and we expect the sector to be alert to regulatory risks when collaborating with international partners, conducting appropriate due diligence to comply with all legislation, including the Human Rights Act 1998. The Office for Students (OfS) have introduced a further registration condition on harassment and sexual misconduct, which will come into force on 1 August 2025. This condition is important in ensuring HE students are free from harassment and sexual misconduct that would otherwise adversely affect their ability to benefit from their studies.

As the independent regulator, it is the role of the OfS to monitor and assess registered providers’ compliance with all its conditions of registration.