Circumventing university leaders and administration, the questions sent directly to researchers include whether their university has ever received funding from China and if the project complies with the administration’s transphobic “two sexes” executive order, the Australian Financial Review reports.
The questionnaire also asks about diversity, equity and inclusion; ending government waste; terrorism; the war on opioids; secure borders with Mexico and eradicating anti-Christian bias.
National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) president Dr Alison Barnes has urged the Federal Government to guarantee that Australian researchers will be protected from foreign influence.
“The Federal Government must push back on the Trump administration’s blatant foreign interference in our independent research in the strongest possible terms,” Barnes said.
“A foreign government seeking to destroy public education globally must have zero influence on what Australian researchers and their international colleagues work on.”
Barnes slammed Trump’s agenda as “hateful, racist, transphobic and misogynistic”.
“The idea of research funding being tied to any of those values is sickening,” she said.
“Allowing Trump to dictate the terms of research will have devastating impacts on research including life-saving vaccines, critical social sciences and climate solutions that could save the planet – just to name a few.
“It’s crucial that research is built on international collaboration free from government interference.
“We stand in solidarity with our colleagues in the US and around the world in rejecting Trump’s potentially catastrophic attacks on education.”
NTEU Queer Unionists in Tertiary Education national convener Amy Sargeant said Trump is “disgracefully attacking LGBTQI+ people and communities right around the world”.
“Trying to force research to comply with transphobia is disgusting, and the Australian Government must unwaveringly stand up against this fascist foreign intervention,” she said.
The US Department of Education has revealed its plans to lay off nearly half of its staff as part of a dramatic downsizing directed by the US President and led by the Department of Government Efficiency.
“The President wants to return education back to the states, empower those closest to the people to make these very important decisions for our children’s lives. And ... this is a first step in that process,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told American ABC News’ reporter Selina Wang when asked about the cuts.
According to American ABC sources, the US federal education department only provides about 10 per cent of funding to public schools, does not administer curriculum, nor create lessons for the nation’s students.
It also does not set requirements for enrolment and graduation or establish or accredit schools or universities.
All standardised exams and assessments are carried out by the states, however the education department does hold schools accountable for enforcing non-discrimination laws based on race, gender and disability.
The Department also holds schools accountable for student achievement through the Every Student Succeeds Act, which requires each state to provide data on subject performance, graduation rates, suspensions, absenteeism, teacher qualifications and more.
