The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) unveiled a new database last week showing how much money American universities have taken from foreign nations, with Qatar emerging as the top donor and China ranking fourth.
“America’s taxpayer-funded colleges and universities have both a moral and legal obligation to be fully transparent with the U.S. government and the American people about their foreign financial relationships. We are grateful to the many stakeholders for their feedback in designing this portal and look forward to vigorously protecting our educational institutions from potentially harmful foreign influence,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon when the database was announced last month.
The database, released to the public on January 2, revealed that Qatar was by far the largest foreign funding source for American colleges, providing a total of $6.6 billion.
Germany, the second-largest source of foreign funds, provided only $4.4 billion.
As concerns about Chinese influence in the U.S. continue to grow, the database revealed that China provided $4.1 billion in funding. New York University and Harvard University were the two biggest recipients of Chinese funds, each accepting over $300 million from the communist nation.
The House passed a series of bills in December aimed at curtailing Chinese influence in American education, but those bills targeted grade-school rather than higher education.
The new database includes information through the end of January 2025 and aims to remedy a failure from the Biden Administration to require universities to disclose all foreign funding sources over $250,000. The disclosure must take into account both gifts and contracts.
“The current reporting portal has not been meaningfully updated since the first Trump Administration. The Biden Administration did not make it a priority to enforce Section 117 or monitor potential foreign influence at American colleges and universities,” said the DOE.
The database shows Harvard as the largest recipient of foreign funds, taking a staggering $4 billion, with Cornell University in second place at $3 billion.
Some Maine universities made the list: The University of New England received $5.8 million, with Morocco as its largest funding source; The University of Maine received $2.8 million, with the Netherlands topping the list of the state-funded school’s foreign sponsors.
Bates took $4 million, including just under $1 million from China, with the United Kingdom as its largest foreign funding source.
