Gulf-funding of British Universities and the Focus on Human Development

Abstract

We use quantitative content analysis to compare the academic publications and events of Gulf-funded Middle East research institutions in the uk to those that have not received such funding from a Middle Eastern donor. Our results provide some support for hypotheses about funding leading to a bias in the selection of research topics. We show that Gulf-funding of uk Middle East Studies research institutions is associated with less focus on democracy and human rights than non-funded comparable institutions. Moreover, we show that Gulf-funded institutions focus more on their donor countries than do non Gulf-funded institutions, but that they give more attention to issues of education and youth unemployment than issues of democracy, human rights, and gender equality when writing about their donor countries.