UK–China Research Collaborations More Than Quadrupled in a Decade: Report

File photo of graduates attending a graduation ceremony at a UK university, on July 16, 2008. Chris Ison/PA Media

The number of British research papers published with Chinese co-authors have more than quadrupled in a decade, a report said.

The report, led by former universities minister Jo Johnson and published by the King’s College London (KCL), said Chinese students and research engagement with China is “the single most important source of international fee income for the UK’s research-intensive universities.”

The extent of reliance has brought “considerable” challenge to de-risking British universities amid increasingly icy relationships between the Chinese Communist Party and liberal democracies around the world.

The report said “the single most effective way” to solve the problem is to allow domestic fees to increase with inflation.

It also said higher education institutes are still following a “cross your fingers” strategy that ”de-coupling is in the future never necessary for China, in the same ways it was for relations with Russia in February 2022“ just before the country invaded Ukraine, but the UK’s research ties with China is ”so much more pervasive than with Russia“ that it will be ”critical” to help universities plan for a potential decoupling.

The report comes after a higher education regulator warned in June that over-reliance on Chinese and other international students has put England’s universities at financial risk.

Proportion of Chinese Collaboration Jumps Up by Ten Fold

According to the KCL report (pdf), 22,591 research papers published by British academics in 2021 had co-authors from China, almost 443 percent of the number seen ten years ago (5,105).

Of all British research articles and reviews published in 2021, around 10 percent were done with Chinese contribution, compared to 1 percent in 2000. The report said 2022 data suggests the proportion has grown yet again, to around 11.4 percent of all British papers.

The proportion “exceeds Germany’s share” and has been gaining on the United States, which contributes to about 19 percent of UK research publications, the report said.

The collaborations have been tilted towards technology. In some areas, research done in partnership with China contributed to more than a quarter or almost half of all research.

Among articles and reviews published between 2017 and 2021 in 21,000 leading journals indexed in the Web of Science where British scientists were involved, some 45.5 percent of publications on automation control systems were published in collaboration with Chinese researchers.

During the same period, around 39.3 percent of British papers on telecommunications had Chinese contribution, and the proportion was 36.3 for electrical engineering, 31.2 percent in artificial intelligence, 31 percent in computer information systems, and between 25.7 and 27.5 in areas including energy and fuels, civil engineering, environmental engineering, and instruments and instrumentation.

Authors cautioned against overinterpreting the tilt and assuming the collaborations are “technological ‘entryism’ that carries security implications,” but said it “may be a valid consideration in any strategy for de-risking.”

Overall, the proportion of British research output involving internatonal collaborations has risen from around 10 percent to over 20 percent in the past four decades, the report said.

Chinese Students Cluster in Elite Universities

While the number of new Indian students has begun outpacing Chinese students last year, the latter group remains a main source of income for higher education institutes.

In the 2021/22 academic year, the number of the number of first-degree Chinese students fell by 6 percent compared to the previous year, while the number of EU students dropped by 21 percent.

The Chinese demand for British higher education has shifted to postgraduate degrees, with 78,265 Chinese students studying master’s degrees in 2021/22, a 6 percent increase on the year before.

KCL said the proportion of Chinese full-time doctoral entrants in the UK has increased significantly over the past five years, from 17 percent in 2017/2018 to 28 percent in 2021/2022.

These students were also clustered at the “most selective” and most expensive institutes, the report said.

“In 2017, the high-tariff HEIs—mainly Russell Group universities— accounted for 75 [percent] of all doctoral students from China. In 2021, the same universities hosted 80 [percent] of Chinese PhDs,” the report said.

System-Wide Contingency Planning Needed

The “single most effective way” to reduce the dependency on foreign student fees is to allow universities charge more fees from domestic students, the report said.

“The legal cap on tuition fees for full-time undergraduate UK students at most universities is £9,250, barely changed from the £9,000 at introduction a decade ago.”

The report said the current fee cap, which will stay in place for another two years, is worth just 6,020 in 2012 money.

“Teaching UK students at this level will be loss-making for many higher education institutions, leaving them with few options other than to recruit international students whose fees are unregulated,” the report said.

Meanwhile, although diversification of foreign students and research partnership “is making slow progress,” higher education institutes are still following a “cross your fingers” strategy, hoping it won’t be necessary to de-couple with China in the future, the report said.

Authors called for system-wide contingency planning, including “clear criteria” published “well in advance of any crisis” so universities will know what to do in case they have to withdraw from collaborations.