Foreign Minister Marise Payne is reviewing over 6,000 deals between universities and foreign powers.

Senator Payne is scrutinising the deals with regard to her veto powers for any agreements that are contrary to the national interest. It comes after she cancelled the Victorian government’s Belt and Road deal with Beijing in April.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is now combing through the university sector’s arrangements and memorandums of understanding with foreign entities.

“I recognise the work universities have put into the [Foreign Arrangements] Scheme and appreciate their engagement,” Senator Payne said this week.

“Universities themselves now have full visibility of their international activity across their various faculties. This will result in improved governance and due diligence of their foreign agreements.”

Australia’s Group of Eight (Go8) richest universities submitted details of more than 4,000 foreign deals, with another 2,000  coming from the nation’s 30 other higher education institutions.

Go8 chief Vicki Thomson says a deadline of this Friday set by the Foreign Relations Act was extremely difficult to meet, suggesting there may be more deals that would need to be submitted.

“This process has been a huge logistic and administrative challenge, with the complexity of the legislation putting potentially hundreds of thousands of person-to-person ‘agreements’ and other minor arrangements in the frame,” she said. 

“There is, however, more to be done as some universities were required to review in detail as many as 75 agreements for every one agreement lodged with the scheme.”

Reports say some university leaders expect their on-campus Confucius Institutes to be cancelled by the Foreign Minister.

These institutes are set up as Chinese cultural and language study centres, but opponents say they are part of Beijing’s attempts to influence foreign universities.

Ms Thomson said some foreign partners were already scrapping deals with Australian universities due to the legislation. 

“The impact of this legislation has not gone unnoticed by current and potential international partners of Go8 universities,” she said.

“A number have withdrawn from agreements, not because of any issues concerning alignment with Australia’s foreign policy, but on the basis of complexity and what they perceive [to be] unwarranted government overreach into the university sector.”