The UK needs to improve its oversight mechanisms for foreign interference in institutions including higher education, a group of Conservative members of Parliament (MPs) said on Monday. The Tory backbenchers suggested the government should audit Chinese influences in British universities, advise academic institutions on China collaborations, and help create diversified income for colleges to reduce dependence on Chinese students. The proposal is part of a list of recommendations in a report (pdf) published on Sunday by China Research Group (CRG). The CRG report—backed by two foreign secretaries—summed up the changes in the UK-China relationship in the past 18 months and made a series of suggestions on what the UK should do next. Writing in The Times of London, Tom Tugendhat, chair of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee and co-founder of the CRG, called education “Britain’s biggest services export to China.” With a record number of Chinese university students in British …