The University of Exeter has quietly approved a multimillion-pound arrangement to deliver postgraduate training to senior Saudi Arabian military officers and government officials, the Guardian can reveal — a move that has prompted fierce criticism from staff who accuse management of chasing “dirty money” while slashing academic jobs at home.
Under the deal, academics from the Devon-based Russell Group institution will deliver a Master of Arts in applied security and strategy, branded the MStrat, to a cohort of roughly 20 students annually at the National Defense University (NDU) in Riyadh. The programme is set to run for three years, beginning in the 2026-27 academic cycle. The NDU itself was known until 2023 as the Saudi Armed Forces Command and Staff College.
A Partnership Kept From Public View
The arrangement was given the green light by the university’s council in February, with its senate formally endorsing the deal the following month. Yet it has attracted virtually no public attention. Council minutes, seen by the Guardian, mark the partnership as “strictly confidential and commercial in confidence.”
That secrecy has done little to quell unease on campus, where anger is already simmering over the university’s decision to axe 150 posts, predominantly within the humanities, arts and social sciences departments for which Exeter is best known.
The local branch of the University and College Union (UCU) has reacted with undisguised fury. A spokesperson said: “We are horrified but hardly surprised to learn that management at Exeter are more interested in flogging military training to despotic regimes than in defending world-class humanities and social sciences teaching.”
A Long-Established Programme — Now Going Global
In its promotional literature, the university describes the MStrat as a course that “blends academic depth with practical application” and is aimed at working professionals across the armed forces, government and international organisations. It promises students “a rigorous yet flexible environment in which to build strategic expertise.”
A spokesperson for Exeter University defended the partnership, pointing out that the degree has been taught at Exeter since 2012 through its strategy and security institute. Current cohorts include serving British military personnel sponsored by the Ministry of Defence alongside Chevening scholars funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
“Professional military education has formed part of the UK’s defence relationship with Saudi Arabia for many years, including through UK government institutions,” the spokesperson said. “Partnerships of this kind are assessed on academic and ethical grounds, through a process separate from budget planning.”
The university insisted the deal was part of its broader mission. “Like universities across the sector, Exeter continues to develop external partnerships and educational activity that supports our academic mission and enables our expertise to have impact in the UK and internationally,” the spokesperson added.
Critics Point to Saudi Rights Record
The deal lands at a sensitive moment in Exeter’s internal politics, and against a backdrop of sustained international scrutiny of Saudi Arabia’s human rights practices. Campaigners have repeatedly criticised the kingdom over the detention of activists, restrictions on women’s rights advocates, and the deaths of migrant workers.
The UCU has seized on that record. “Rather than chasing dirty money like this, we believe a university should be about protecting freedom of speech, upholding human rights and ensuring a wide range of brilliant courses and a fantastic student experience,” the union spokesperson said.
Similar alarm bells rang earlier this year at the University of Cambridge, where the Judge Business School put forward proposals to deliver “leadership development” and “innovation management” training to Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry. Senior academics labelled the plans “horrifying” and accused the institution of betraying its commitments to freedom of expression.
A Growing Defence-Academia Nexus
The timing of Exeter’s arrangement is notable. Just last month, the UK government announced the formation of a defence universities alliance, with Exeter among the 35 founding members. The alliance, backed by a £182 million investment, is intended to “bring together academia and the armed forces” and bolster defence research capacity.
Such collaborations are not new. British universities regularly tender for consultancy and training contracts with foreign governments, sometimes worth millions of pounds. Each potential arrangement must pass through internal vetting processes designed to weigh the legal, ethical and security risks. Whether Exeter’s Saudi partnership cleared those bars without significant internal dissent is a question the university’s council minutes, sealed as commercially confidential, are unlikely to answer.
Why it Matters
The Exeter deal lays bare a growing tension at the heart of British higher education: the search for international revenue streams, particularly from authoritarian states, set against stated commitments to academic freedom, ethical scrutiny and the preservation of flagship humanities disciplines. With 150 jobs under threat in precisely the subjects that have long given Exeter its intellectual cachet, the university now faces a credibility test that goes well beyond the campus boundary. Critics will argue that an institution cannot credibly champion open inquiry and human rights while training the officer class of a regime with one of the most-criticised rights records on earth. For staff and students watching the cull unfold, the partnership is not just a line in a foreign account book — it is a verdict on what their university believes in.
