US Universities to Challenge America's Academic Freedom Restriction in Response to National Security Issue

US universities are against the new restriction proposed by US government that will limit foreign students in doing research. The national administration has come up with new rule that will restrict foreign students to do research on 'sensitive topics' such as nuclear technology, satellite, and defense system.

According to the State Department, the studies on such issues could lead to intellectual property theft. There are 62 research institutions including Harvard, Stanford, MIT and University of Pennsylvania who propose a 'push back' against the State Department rule, Sputnik has learned.

If this regulation is applied, it will affect sponsored-research in term of its pool opportunities since it has currently become a trend in US universities.

Sending a letter to the State Department, these universities are joining force with Association of American Universities to criticize the rule as it would likely to create 'disastrous consequences'. According to the coalitions, the State Department decision might be 'too far' to consider a research as a threat to the national security. And it would not be valuing the academic freedom that America is promising today.

Steve Eisner, spokesperson from Stanford University said that the idea is not acceptable because the school will not going to tell a foreign student not to participate in a research due to citizenship problem.

According to the FBI report in 2011, as published by the Reuters, it accused China to steal military information and export information. The case of 'taking advantage' using university research, however, has never been officially announced despite suspect. The Department of Justice made an announcement that there are indeed, foreign espionage targeting faculties and students to steal valuable information and is working with many labs and institutions as a way to raising awareness.

For the record, Chinese students in US universities are reportedly decreasing after government regulation to restrict research access in 1960. Currently, there are only 31 percent of foreign students pursuing a degree in US colleges, based on 2014-2015 report.