JOHANNESBURG - The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has denied reports that a previously cancelled agreement with the Israeli Ben-Gurion University (BGU) has been reinstated.

In April, UJ cancelled its agreement to conduct a joint research programme with BGU denying reports it was spearheading an academic boycott of Israeli universities in response to the Palestinian-Israeli tension.

Yesterday, BGU announced the “reinstatement of the research agreement between UJ and BGU”.

But UJ Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research, Innovation and Advancement, Professor Adam Habib, has made it clear that there is a distinction between the agreement between the two institutions and a research contact between  its academics.

“There is a fundamental difference,” said Habib. He  explained that he was legally bound to capture the research contract between the academics but  it was not an agreement between the universities themselves.

“I have thousands of these research contracts,” he said.

He emphasised that upon the previous termination of the institutional agreement, the university would have  no problem with its academics opening separate agreements with any outside researchers.