Vice Chancellor Keith Burnett (Left) and Former British Ambassador to Libya Sir Vincent Fean
Senior University of Sheffield staff, including Vice-Chancellor Keith Burnett, met with a high level member of the Gaddafi regime, and signed a student transfer deal worth £400,000 with Libyan universities, it has emerged.
The deal was aided by the former British Ambassador to Tripoli, who was subsequently awarded an honorary doctorate by the University.
A delegation from the University of Sheffield, led by former Pro-Vice-Chancellor for External Affairs Professor Dominic Shellard, visited Omar Al Makhtar University, in Al Bayda in North-Eastern Libya in December 2009.
Prof. Shellard discussed arrangements for joint Masters and PhD programmes, and signed a preliminary agreement for the two universities to collaborate in the future.
At least one person died in Al Bayda, Libya’s third largest city, when security forces opened fire on protesters during the “day of rage” on February 17. The city is now believed to be controlled by the Libyan opposition.
During a visit to the UK in January 2010, Libyan education minister Dr Abdul Kabir Fakhri, met with Vice-Chancellor Professor Keith Burnett. An agreement was signed between the University of Sheffield and Tripoli’s Al Fateh University, with a view to “strengthening cooperation between the two sides” in scientific areas.
At the end of March 2010, Prof. Burnett led a delegation of senior University of Sheffield staff, including Prof. Shellard and representatives from the Faculties of Science and Medicine on a second, six day long trip to Libya.
The team’s return to Al Bayda resulted in the finalisation of a deal to bring five PhD students from Libya to Sheffield to study at the University’s Biomedical Science research centre. Omar Al Makhtar University committed £400,000 to cover student fees for that academic year.
A spokesperson for the University of Sheffield said:
“The University of Sheffield has academic agreements with two Libyan universities, Omar Al Mukhtar University (OMU) and Al Fateh University (AFU).
“As part of the partnership with OMU, the University offers scholarships to 5 talented Libyan students to study a postgraduate degree at the University of Sheffield in the field of Medicine. The University has also helped to train academic staff at OMU, specifically in relation to improving the quality of their medical education.
“The University has had initial discussions with AFU regarding academic development of their Veterinary and Medical Sciences.”
The University’s full statement can be found here
Shortly before the second trip to Libya, it was announced that Prof. Shellard was to leave Sheffield and to take the position of Vice-Chancellor at Leicester’s De Montfort University.
Omar Al Makhtar University later announced that it had signed deals with De Montfort and Strathclyde Universities to co-operate in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology.
Both visits to Libya included meetings with Sir Vincent Fean, at the time the British Ambassador to Tripoli. Sir Vincent made headlines toward the end of his time as Ambassador for his controversial role in the release of Lockerbie Bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
In a diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks, Fean warned that refusal to release al-Megrahi would have a disastrous impact on British interests in Libya. He said “They could cut us off at the knees.”
Sir Vincent is also a member of the board of trustees of the London Middle East Institute, part of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), and of the University of London. It emerged yesterday that Mutassim Gaddafi, fourth son of Libya’s military leader, was given private tuition at the SOAS in 2006. In 2010, SOAS signed an agreement with Al-Fateh University, reportedly worth £188,024.
In 2008, Sir Vincent aided a $165m deal between the UK arm of military company General Dynamics to supply communications hardware to the Libyan army. The deal was the first of its kind to be made between a British company and Libya since the lifting of trade embargoes in 2004.
Sir Vincent Fean was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Sheffield on July 20 2010.
Read our full investigation in the next issue of Forge Press, out Friday March 18
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