UCL is selling off its reputation to arms manufacturers and mining conglomerates. Companies such as BAE Systems and Lock- head Martin have been setting up research institutes, which college management are only too happy to lend the UCL name to for the right price. With an increase in pri- vate investment, UCL’s research is at risk of becoming less critical and more driven by corporate interests. The Cheese Grater has delved into the murky world of UCL’s pri- vate financiers.
Semi-private institutes are increasingly sprouting up at UCL. In November 2008, the former Labour Defence Secretary John Reid, supported by arms manufacturers, an- nounced the establishment of the Institute of Security and Resilience Studies. The ISRS began operations in April 2010, and the appearance of keynote speaker Tony Blair at its inaugural conference in Novem- ber last year drew large protests outside UCL.
The Institute gets its funding primarily from two arms companies, Ultra Electron- ics and EADS. Ultra Electronics develops drone technology, describing itself as a “key partner” in the US Predator drone programme, while EADS is currently be- ing investigated by the Serious Fraud Of- fice, following allegations of bribing Saudi Arabian officials to the value of £14.5m to secure arms contracts. EADS is a key part- ner in the development of the Eurofighter jet and drones for the French, German and Spanish armed forces.
The ISRS’s appointed fellows and advi- sory board reads like a who’s who of the international defence and intelligence in- dustries. Among the board’s members are Professor Phillip Bobbit, director of the US national security council under Presi- dent Clinton, and Michael Chertoff, sec- retary of homeland security under George W. Bush. Furthermore, the advisory board is chaired by none other than the chairman of Ultra Electronics, Douglas Caster, suggesting a few million pounds can buy anyone a piece of the UCL brand these days.
UCL management are keeping quiet about the ISRS. Attempts to submit Free- dom of Information requests on the Insti- tute have been dismissed, UCL claiming not to hold the relevant information. Jon Tomkinson, of UCL Legal Services, re- jected a Freedom of Information request on the ISRS, saying, “the Institute is not a department of the University”. The se- cretive nature and lack of transparency around the ISRS is deeply worrying. Late last year, an Early Day Motion condemn- ing UCL’s harbouring of the ISRS was submitted to the House of Commons by Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, which called for UCL to “reconsider its position in hosting this institution and instead pro- tect its own academic independence”.
Yet another venture partially funded by arms money is the UCL Security Sci- ence Doctoral Research Training Centre (or SECReT as UCL calls it). SECReT was set up in 2009 with £10m cash “in kind support from industrial, academic and public sector partners”. UCL’s web- site doesn’t list its “kind” supporters, but several doctoral research and jobs web- sites reveal the names of the Centre’s sponsors, which include the Metropoli- tan Police, Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems.
Far from a miner problem
UCL is accepting funding from other murky sources too. BHP Billiton, one of the world’s largest mining conglomer- ates, invested over £6m in UCL to set up the Institute of Sustainable Resources in 2011. BHP Billiton mines natural gas, coal and oil as well as other natural resources, creating possible conflicts of interest with the institute’s supposedly impartial research on climate change and fossil fuels.
UCL’s traditional source of private funding isn’t dead yet though, with mon- ey still pouring directly into existing fac- ulties. A paper by studywarnomore.org. uk estimated that over £5m was invested in UCL by arms companies between 2001 and 2006. The pace isn’t slowing either, as in 2010 BAE Systems invested as much as £4m directly into UCL Me- chanical Engineering. Oil and shipping companies have also been chipping in via the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology to support mas- ters degrees in Mechanical engineering, as has the Ministry of Defence.
Corporate interests have been pay- ing millions to get a piece of the UCL brand - arms and mining companies fund research institutes at UCL in order to benefit from the respectability that goes along with our university’s name. These institutes provide a smokescreen of ‘corporate responsibility’ for other- wise shady companies, such as Ultra Electronics, EADS and BHP Billiton. Professor Philippe Sands QC, of UCL’s Faculty of Laws, warned in The Guard- ian last December that the ISRS could become “little more than a front offering a patina of academic respectability to one set of views”. Indeed, it seems UCL management are only too happy to of- fer up the university’s reputation to the highest bidder.