Senior academics describe the Judge business school’s proposal to provide services and training as ‘horrifying’
Cambridge University’s business school is seeking to provide “leadership development” and “innovation management” to Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry despite concerns over its government’s record on human rights and climate change, the Guardian has learned.
Cambridge’s leadership has approved a proposal by the university’s Judge business school to form a “memorandum of understanding” with the ministry for services and training, after an initial introduction by the UK’s Ministry of Defence.
Senior academics described the proposal as “horrifying” and a betrayal of Cambridge University’s commitments to freedom of expression.
Documents seen by the Guardian state that an agreement “would set preliminary goals and terms for potential collaborations to develop executive education, innovation management, leadership development and healthcare administration strategies, working exclusively with the civilian administration of the [Saudi defence ministry].”
The university’s press office declined to comment and passed inquiries to the business school. A spokesperson for the business school said: “Cambridge Judge business school has not signed such an MoU [memorandum of understanding] with the Saudi Arabia defence ministry.”
But Judge business school officials told Cambridge’s committee on benefactions and external and legal affairs, which scrutinises funding and research proposals for reputational risk, that it “was requesting permission to enter into a memorandum of understanding” with the ministry.
The benefactions committee, chaired by the vice-chancellor, Prof Deborah Prentice, approved the request by a majority vote at its meeting in January. It said an agreement “would in principle be acceptable” but required the committee to be consulted on individual contracts.
