Study War No More: Military involvement in UK Universities is a report produced in collaboration between Campaign Against Arms Trade and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. The Study War No More project has been touring UK universities with authors Tim Street, Jo Wittams, and Martha Beale. Corporate Watch caught up with Martha after an event organised by the Oxford Peace Research Trust.

Martha is Education and Campaigns Officer at the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FoR) and works with 16 to 30(ish) year olds trying to get them interested and active in issues of peace and conflict resolution. As the Fellowship of Reconciliation is an international pacifist Christian peace charity, Martha focuses on providing opportunities for education on a range of peace and conflict issues.

Martha told Corporate Watch how over the years, people have become increasingly concerned, and vocal in their concern, about the level of international conflict occurring in the world. Young people, especially students have played a key role in this movement: voicing their opinions, taking action and seeing where they can apply pressure.

FoR and Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) were already supporting students campaigning against repression and conflict. Both organisations found that they were increasingly frustrated about the lack of information on universities’ involvement with arms companies. Moreover, they found that students were incredibly concerned the extent to which universities were influenced by money from military companies and organisations such as the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The Study War No More report was established to address this concern directly.

The report examines military involvement in 26 universities from across the UK, looking at the grants and contracts these universities receive from military organisations, and the effect this is having upon:

• universities as ‘independent’ institutions;
• academics who are working within them; and
• university education as a whole.

In 2005, Chris Langley of Scientists for Global Responsibility published ‘Soldiers in the Laboratory’ this looked at military involvement in science, engineering and technology[1]. Martha enthused that this study was fantastic and that, “Study War no More builds on [Langley’s research] by examining the wider implications on 26 individual universities.”

Twenty of the universities covered in the report were chosen because they are members of the prestigious Russell Group. As well as representing most of the UK’s oldest higher education institutions, the Russell Group is also an association of the most research-intensive. To illustrate this, between 2006 to 2007 it boasted that Russell Group universities “accounted for 66% (over £2.2 billion) of UK Universities’ research grant and contract income, 68% of total Research Council income, 56% of all doctorates awarded in the United Kingdom, and over 30% of all students studying in the United Kingdom from outside the EU”[2]. The remaining six universities in the report were included to provide a geographical spread across the United Kingdom. Cranfield and Loughborough were also included as they are higher education institutions known to have strong connections to the military sector[3].

Martha lamented that, “due constraints of time, and limited resources, the report does not cover all military projects at all UK universities. However, the report seeks to examine many of those universities most likely to have conducted the greatest number of projects.”

Study War No More is one of the first studies to use the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act extensively. As Corporate Watch uses FoI for writing reports and articles, we talked a bit about how the authors found the process. As well as being able to uncover the extent to which military institutions are embedded in research and development undertaken in universities, Martha described the report as “an important test of how transparent, accountable and democratic UK universities are, as well as how useful the Freedom of Information Act can be in assisting independent research”. However, the report’s authors found a huge disparity in the amount and quality of data in the FoI replies received from universities responding to the same original request. Much of the data provided under FoI was incomplete due to limitations on the amount of information universities were prepared to provide free of charge; while other times data was inaccessible due to system updates, institutional takeovers and storage facilities.

Martha also noted that as well as genuine problems with bureaucracy and poor data storage, universities also had different attitudes when responding to requests. Many universities were unfamiliar with, and had inadequate provisions for, FoI. Certain institutions omitted funding details, these were later revealed by other sources (such as the university’s own website!), or led the authors to believe they had provided all relevant information when they later found this wasn’t the case. Some took a hostile attitude to the FoI requests taking them as personal criticisms rather than legitimate appeals for information and transparency. Martha told Corporate Watch that some universities responded by applying exemptions such as commercial confidentiality and that some information could not be revealed to ‘military secrecy’.

Martha spoke of the various ways military companies and government departments are involved in UK universities. This included providing funding for research and development (R&D); student grants and sponsorship, especially PhD and MA/MSc/MRes funding; prizes and awards to universities, departments and students; attendance at careers fairs; sponsoring specific projects carried out by university spin-off companies; and, collaborative work through industrial or governmental advisory boards.

The Study War No More report looks at the way military organisations are involved, examining public organisations, such as the Ministry of Defence, and private organisations, such as Rolls Royce and BAE Systems. Some key findings were also: of the 26 UK universities, those conducting the largest number of military projects were: Cambridge, Loughborough, Oxford, Southampton and University College, London. And identified the top three corporations involved as sponsors or partners of over two thirds of military projects in universities as being: Rolls Royce, BAE Systems and QinetiQ.

The report makes copious recommendations for universities to be transparent about dealings with military companies and organisations, as Martha optimistically puts it,

“When I am challenged on whether ridding university education of arms trade funding is realistic, I always freely admit it is pie in the sky optimism. We want the life we experience to be radically different. We cannot change history, but we can shape the future. Surely it is better to have an ideal and strive towards it, rather than be pessimistic and never try!”

For more information, and to get involved, check out studywarnomore.org.uk

References
[1] Langley, C (2005), ‘Soldiers in the Laboratory: Military involvement in science and technology – and some alternatives’, Scientists for Global Responsibility, Kent: SGR. The report can be accessed on http://www.sgr.org.uk/ArmsControl/Soldiers_in_Lab_Report.pdf

[2] Author unknown, ‘Front page’, The Russell Group, accessed 08/07/08

[3] Page 10. Beale M., Street T., & Wittams J. (2007), Study War No More, London: CAAT & FoR. The report can be accessed on http://www.studywarnomore.org.uk/documents/studywarnomore.pdf