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A UK university was told to stop human rights research or risk losing access to the Chinese student market, an academic has claimed. Sheffield Hallam university allegedly complied with a demand from Beijing to halt research about human rights abuses in China, leading to a major project being dropped. Following threats of legal action, the university U-turned last month and apologised, it was revealed today. This morning, the Government branded the affair ‘absolutely unacceptable’ and said ministers had ‘raised it with Beijing’. It comes after Sheffield Hallam was subjected to a campaign of harassment and intimidation by Chinese officials regarding the research, the BBC reported. It obtained documents suggesting staff at the university’s China office were threatened by officials from country's National Security Service, who demanded the project be scrapped. In addition, access to the university's websites in China was blocked, impeding its ability to recruit Chinese students. In an internal email from July 2024, a university official said: ‘This undoubtedly had a negative impact on recruitment in 23/24.’ They also wrote: ‘Attempting to retain the business in China and publication of the research are now untenable bedfellows’. In late 2024, Sheffield Hallam decided not to publish a piece of research about forced labour. And in February, the university announced the project would be mothballed. The research, led by Professor Laura Murphy, focused on Uyghurs, a persecuted Muslim minority in China, being co-opted into forced labour programmes. The Chinese government rejects accusations of forced labour, and says that Uyghur work programmes are for poverty alleviation. Professor Murphy is based at the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice (HKC), a leading research institution focused on human rights. She uncovered the affair after submitting a ‘subject access request’ demanding Sheffield Hallam hand over any relevant internal documents about her project. The documents she obtained showed the university ‘had negotiated directly with a foreign intelligence service to trade my academic freedom for access to the Chinese student market,’ she told the BBC. She added: ‘I'd never seen anything quite so patently explicit about the extent to which a university would go to ensure that they have Chinese student income.’ In October, after threats of legal action from Professor Murphy for violating her academic freedom, Sheffield Hallam lifted restrictions. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘It is absolutely unacceptable for any foreign state to intimidate, harass or harm individuals in the UK, and the freedom and independence of our academic institutions is sacrosanct. ‘After learning of this case, Government ministers raised it with Beijing, and we welcome the university’s decision to support this research.’ A Sheffield Hallam spokesman said: ‘The University’s decision to not continue with Professor Laura Murphy’s research was taken based on our understanding of a complex set of circumstances at the time, including being unable to secure the necessary professional indemnity insurance. ‘Following a review, we have since approved Professor Murphy’s latest research and are committed to supporting her to undertake and disseminate this important work. ‘For the avoidance of doubt, the decision was not based on commercial interests in China.’ They added that only 1.7 per cent of international students came from China in 2024/25, meaning it was ‘not a significant market’. And they said internal communications ‘do not represent university policy’. It comes after Empiric, which operates student accommodation across the UK, warned demand for its rooms may be decreasing due to ‘geopolitical events’. The company said it had reached an 89 per cent occupancy rate for the 2025-26 academic year, compared with a 95 per cent rate at the same time last year.
