What should happen with Radboud University-China partnerships? That question is currently being pondered by the Partnerships Advisory Committee. A recommendation to the Executive Board is due in early 2026.

Collaboration with China is ‘complex’, as committee chair Lutgarde Buydens (former Dean of the Faculty of Science) diplomatically puts it. It is a country where leading scientific research is being conducted, but also a country where academic freedom is under pressure, and human rights are by no means guaranteed.

Due to increasing geopolitical tensions – think of the military threat towards Taiwan – several universities in the Netherlands are struggling with what to do about partnerships and Chinese scientists.

Hong Kong

In Nijmegen, the Partnerships Advisory Committee is reviewing two partnerships with Hong Kong and four with China. The four Nijmegen committee members and their secretary, all attached to the University or the Radboud university medical center, are asking for advice and updates from experts, among others, to help them formulate a sound recommendation. ‘We’ve already had a visit from the China department of Clingendael (research institute on political and social developments, Eds.),’ says Buydens.

‘We’ve already had a visit from the China department of Clingendael’

The recommendation is due to be submitted to the Executive Board in early 2026. The university administrators are not obliged to adopt these recommendations, but they have done so thus far. In May of this year, Radboud University froze its ties with Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University after the Committee concluded that both institutions contribute to serious and systematic human rights violations.

In order to assess whether partnerships with other institutions can be entered into, or must be discontinued or suspended, the Committee created an ‘assessment framework’ containing points to be taken into consideration. That framework was also adopted by the Executive Board. And when the Committee advised the members of the Executive Board in October to make the case to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for suspending the European Association Agreement with Israel – again because of serious human rights violations by Israeli partners – the administrators once again agreed.

Turkey and Hungary

After Israel, now China too is under close scrutiny. And there are more international partnerships for the Committee to consider: Turkey and Hungary are coming next.

The Partnerships Advisory Committee was set up in October 2024 with a mandate to assess Radboud University’s partnerships and focus in particular on partner institutions in conflict zones. Other universities in the Netherlands have similar committees; for example, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) has an Advisory Committee on Collaboration with Third Parties. The latter led in March 2025 to the UvA Executive Board announcing its intention to amend a partnership contract with the China Scholarship Council. Additional measures had to be taken to ‘ensure academic freedom, knowledge security, data privacy, and the safety of PhD candidates.’