Security service says academics should stop working with and taking grants from firm backed by Chinese intelligence

• MI5 China alert will send chill through UK’s cash-strapped universities

MI5 has issued a rare public warning to UK universities that China’s intelligence service is using a front company to pay for research by UK academics and steal the secrets of hi-tech projects.

Britain’s domestic security service said researchers and academics should cease work with the China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI), sometimes also known as the China Academy of General Technology (CAGT).

Additional reporting by Helena Horton

Students at Edinburgh, Dundee and Nottingham face a term without any teaching as sector struggles with rising financial uncertainty

Welcome classes for students at the University of Edinburgh this year didn’t focus on the lectures, seminars and essays expected. Instead, students were told about how their education was going to fit in around the strikes planned for this year, which for many will effectively wipe out a term of teaching.

“This term I’ve got two courses and my dissertation. Currently, I’ve got no teaching for five weeks,” said Theo Warshaw, 22, in his final year studying geography at Edinburgh, where staff are striking over budget cuts and compulsory redundancies needed to bridge what the university’s leaders have said is a £400m shortfall.