Friday, Jul 11, 2003
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By Hasan Suroor
The Voluntary Vetting Scheme, which has been quietly in operation since 1994 and is likely to be further tightened, is also aimed at preventing potential terrorists from infiltrating British laboratories in the guise of research. A Foreign Office spokesman confirmed to The Hindu that India was on the list, but emphasised that it was a wholly voluntary scheme and it was up to the universities whether they wanted an applicant to be vetted. Responding to concerns that there were moves to make it compulsory, he said although the scheme was under review ``no conclusions'' had been reached. The spokesman said he was ``not aware'' if the countries affected by it had been consulted. The other countries on the list are: Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Cuba, Libya and North Korea. As many as 21 areas, covering a wide spectrum of scientific research, are regarded as potentially risky under the scheme. The ``no-go'' areas include aeronautical engineering, computing science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, electronic engineering, genetics, bio-chemistry, bio-technology, biology, ceramics and glass, microbiology, molecular biology and bio-physics, physics including nuclear physics, chemistry, control engineering, materials science, mathematics, mechatronics and production engineering. Broadly, the way the scheme works is that if a university has ``concerns'' about an applicant from one of these countries, it sends his or her details to the Foreign Office for ``vetting'' before a decision is taken to accept the scholar. A spokesperson for the Universities UK, which represents 121 higher education institutions in the country, denied that all applications were passed on to the foreign office ``automatically''. ``It is only when a university has a concern that this is done,'' she said adding that this was how the Universities UK wanted the scheme to stay. ``We favour a voluntary system.'' The number of applicants sent for vetting each year is not known, but it is believed that it has gone up ``significantly'' after the September 11 terror attacks on America. There is concern in academic circles over reports that universities are under pressure to implement the scheme more actively in the wake of the renewed stress on the war against terrorism, and the discovery that several leading scientists in the Saddam Hussein regime were trained in Britain. Critics have warned against making the scheme compulsory saying it would compromise the academic freedom of universities. One Indian academic said it would curtail universities' right to select scholars on grounds of their academic qualifications. ``It is a veiled threat to academic freedom and very undemocratic,'' said Arvind Sivaramakrishnan who teaches political science in a British university. He believed that a mandatory scheme of this nature could be potentially in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights to which Britain is a signatory. Criticism has also come from civil rights groups which have called it an attempt to undermine basic rights in the name of fighting terrorism.
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