It’s almost the summer holidays but the government has still got some new bills for Parliament to consider. And here’s one that explicitly sets requirements for universities.
The Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill was trailed prior to introduction as communities secretary Michael Gove moving to ban councils from boycotting Israeli goods, fulfilling an almost forgotten 2019 manifesto promise.
But as Wonkhe Daily readers will have seen last week, the legislation (in its initial form) goes much further than that, and explicitly references higher education providers – in England at least.
The bill seeks to prevent public bodies from being influenced by “political or moral disapproval of foreign states” when taking “certain economic decisions” such as procurement and investment. The accompanying press release contends that universities are under pressure from groups “that want to impose their own subjective views about foreign policy.”
