WASHINGTON — In 2025, American colleges and universities amassed over $5.2 billion from foreign entities, as reported by the U.S. Department of Education. This report includes decades of foreign investment in U.S. higher education from as far back as 1986.
The primary sources of these foreign investments were Qatar, the United Kingdom, China, Switzerland, Japan, Germany, and Saudi Arabia. The department unveiled these latest funding disclosures this month.
This data is now accessible through a transparency dashboard that gives a broad view of foreign funding disclosures from colleges and universities. While this move aims at transparency, critics point out missing contexts.
The dashboard traces data back to 1986 when Congress required institutions with federal financial aid to declare foreign gifts or contracts over $250,000 annually, known as Section 117. This measure arose from concerns over foreign influence on educational institutions.
Despite the Education Department promoting the dashboard as a stride towards transparency, it fails to detail gifts and contracts by year, hindering trend analysis. Specifics of the gifts and contracts are also absent.
Trump Administration Initiatives
The Trump administration aimed to heighten transparency around foreign funds entering U.S. educational institutions. An executive order in April 2025 targeted the secrecy of such funds to safeguard students and research from foreign exploitation.
The transparency dashboard is part of a new portal launched in January where institutions must disclose foreign gifts and contracts.
On February 23, the Education Department announced a partnership with the State Department to manage foreign funding reports under Section 117. This partnership is among several interagency agreements aimed at revamping the agency.
State Department will assist in managing the reporting portal and utilize its expertise to review compliance, share data, and identify threats, according to the Education Department.
Nearly $70 Billion Disclosed
Since 1986, 555 institutions have disclosed $67.6 billion in foreign gifts and contracts. Harvard University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are among the top recipients.
The dashboard highlights foreign transactions from “countries of concern,” like China and Russia. Harvard, MIT, and New York University top the list of recipients from these countries.
Concerns from Higher Education Groups
Higher education groups have expressed concerns about the dashboard’s limitations, such as the inability to track annual trends. Sarah Spreitzer from the American Council on Education highlighted the lack of context concerning foreign entities of concern.
The U.S. Department of Commerce named Huawei as a concern in 2019. The dashboard shows $22.7 million from Huawei, but doesn’t clarify that funding ceased post-designation.
Spreitzer argues that institutions comply with Section 117 and hopes for dashboard improvements, such as year-by-year disclosure.
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