National security experts are warning foreign interference is happening in New Zealand in exactly the same way as across the Tasman.
Australia's Security Intelligence Organisation says foreign scientists and academics are ingratiating themselves into university life with the aim of conducting clandestine intelligence gathering.
New Zealand security experts say this is happening here too and universities should be vetting foreign scholars and students.
But the national body University New Zealand says it is not their role to be a quasi security agency.
It's chair Derek McCormack told RNZ reporter Amy Williams each year the group meets with the country's security agencies to discuss risks.
