The 92-page study presents detailed data from 18 major institutions, predominantly major research universities, about their practices in training staff and complying with Federal export control policies. The sample includes 15-US based and 3-non-US universities.
The study furnishes spending data on legal counsel connected to export controls, and estimates of legal staff time, and overall staff time spent on export control compliance issues. Survey respondents report on changes in their export control workload in recent years, and their expectations for the future and furnish detailed data on the number of export control licenses and technology control plans filed in recent years.
Survey participants also estimate their faculty’s level of knowledge about export controls and what percentage of their own university research is subject to such controls. The study also looks at how institutions view hacking attacks on their data subject to export controls, and how many have experienced such attacks and at what level of intensity.
The study looks at how universities provide export control compliance training, at the vehicles used, the source of those vehicles, and the penalties for non-compliance with university export control practices. Specific data is provided about the percentage of universities that pay for export control conference attendance, webinars, videos and other training videos, both vendor-supplied and otherwise. The report also pinpoints the targets of export control training and the pervasiveness of training for full faculty, postdocs, grad and even undergrad students.
Survey participants comment on how they view the Federal Government’s export control efforts – whether these efforts are too meek or too intrusive -- and evaluate the seriousness of the threat that foreign students might infringe on US export controls.
Just a few of the report’s main findings are that:
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A third of survey participants had used an outside attorney within the past year for an issue related to export controls.
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A mean of 89.56% of the research done by the institutions in the sample was viewed as qualifying as fundamental research under US export control law.
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More than 71% of private universities in the sample participate in the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) for export control compliance training.