Higher education institutions vulnerable to money laundering

A "significant minority" of higher education institutions are failing to provide staff and students with guidance on money laundering risks, research from Cardiff University and the University of the West of England (UWE) has found. The study, published in the journal the Criminal Law Review, says higher education institutions are not explicitly incorporated within the scope of UK anti-money laundering regulations, leaving a "significant gap" in how the law is being implemented. Freedom of Information requests were submitted to 120 universities across the UK for the research, with 110 providing responses. The anonymised analysis that follows shows 20% of respondents do not currently provide any internal anti-money laundering training for staff, and 24% of respondents do not provide any guidance to their students on the risks posed to them by financial and organised crime. Although 17 universities noted they stopped accepting cash payments during or after 2019/2020, the results show 22 institutions continue to accept cash for tuition fees and accommodation. Three institutions each accepted more than £1m in cash payments in 2019/20 with the total amount of cash payments across 39 universities adding up to £12m in the same year. The findings also reveal most universities do not submit suspicious activity reports (SARs) to the authorities.