US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has accused the Chinese Communist Party of “poisoning the well” of US higher education, adding that schools were censoring themselves due to “fear of offending China”.

Despite Hedges release, the academics' union UCU has called for a wholesale review of UK TNE operations in the Gulf state.

The UK HE sector has championed the importance of academic freedom following the UAE sentencing a British PhD student to life imprisonment for alleged spying.