U.S. Department of Education Releases Latest Foreign Funding Disclosures from Federally-Funded American Universities

Today, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) released data compiled from foreign funding disclosures submitted by American colleges and universities for 2025 - documenting over 8,300 transactions worth more than $5.2 billion in reportable foreign gifts and contracts. These disclosures are required by Section 117 of the Higher Education Act (Section 117), which obligates universities receiving Federal financial assistance to disclose foreign source gifts and contracts with a value of $250,000 or more annually to the Department. This data is now available for public inspection on the Trump Administration's new foreign funding reporting portal, which the Department launched earlier this year and upgraded today to include new data visualization capabilities. Including the most recent 2025 disclosures, a total of $67.6 billion in foreign funding, representing 222 countries, has now been reported by American universities since the Higher Education Act was amended to include Section 117 in 1986 (the majority of which has been disclosed to the Department since 2019).

The Trump Administration has taken unprecedented measures to bring transparency and accountability to foreign funding disclosures as required by law. The new portal allows the American people, Congress, and the media to inspect and analyze key features of disclosed foreign funding, including gifts and contracts received from parties designated as entities of concern by the U.S. Department of State among other federal agencies. It includes 11 additional data elements-a 61% increase in data points made available to the public.

"Thanks to the Trump Administration's new accountability portal, the American people have unprecedented visibility into the foreign dollars flowing into our colleges and universities-including funding from countries and entities that are involved in activities that threaten America's national security. This marks a new era of transparency for the American people and streamlined compliance for colleges and universities, making it easier than ever for institutions to meet their legal obligations," said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. "Under President Trump's leadership, we remain firmly committed to ensuring that universities uphold their legal and ethical obligations to disclose the true origins of their foreign relationships. This transparency is essential not only to preserving the integrity of academic research but also to ensure the security and resilience of our nation."

The most recent disclosures from 2025 identify Qatar (over $1.1 billion), the United Kingdom (over $633 million), China (over $528 million), Switzerland (over $451 million), Japan (over $374 million), Germany (over $292 million), and Saudi Arabia (over $285 million) as the largest foreign sources of reportable gifts and contracts to American universities (including both state and non-state entities). The top university recipients of those foreign funds are Carnegie Mellon University (almost $1 billion), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (almost $1 billion), Stanford University (over $775 million), and Harvard University (over $324 million). Additionally, between February 28, 2025, and December 16, 2025, more than $2 billion in reportable gifts and contracts were reported late, in direct violation of statutory requirements.

Covering the period from 1986 through December 16, 2025, Harvard University has disclosed that it received more money from counterparties located in countries of concern (as identified at 42 U.S.C. § 19221(a)(1)) than any other institution of higher education, totaling over $610 million. Harvard is followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (over $490 million), New York University (over $462 million), Stanford University (over $418 million), and Yale University (over $400 million).

Background

Section 117 of the Higher Education Act (20 U.S.C. § 1011f) requires institutions of higher education to disclose foreign source gifts and contracts with values of $250,000 or more annually to the Department; it also requires that those same foreign funding disclosures be made available by the Department for "public inspection." Section 117's disclosure requirements are intended to protect national security and academic integrity by providing transparency regarding potential foreign influence in higher education. Noncompliant institutions risk enforcement by the U.S. Department of Justice, including civil actions compelling compliance and recouping the full costs of enforcement. Noncompliant institutions could also lose the ability to participate in the Department of Education's Title IV student aid programs.

Under Section 117, the Department of Education is not responsible for regulating which foreign entities provide funding to colleges and universities; however, it is obligated to ensure that these institutions fully and accurately disclose all such funding.

The reports made public today reflect disclosures submitted by institutions of higher education through December 16, 2025. At that time, in order to facilitate migration from the legacy reporting portal to the new reporting portal, institutions were no longer able to submit reports through the old portal. On January 2, 2026, when the new portal launched, institutions were able to resume submitting reports for the reporting period which ended on January 31, 2026. Additional disclosures filed during the period December 17, 2025, through January 31, 2026, will be updated on the portal by February 28, 2026.

On April 23, 2025, President Trump signed the "Transparency Regarding Foreign Influence at American Universities" Executive Order, making it a top priority "to end the secrecy surrounding foreign funds in American educational institutions and safeguard America's students and research from foreign exploitation." The launch of a new reporting portal is an important step by the Secretary of Education to deliver on that promise to the American people and to restore the public's right to inspect the foreign funding disclosures made by universities and reported to the Department. Today's release of 2025 data, together with the launch of an upgraded data visualizer, comes after years of neglect by the Biden Administration, which failed to effectively enforce Section 117 and shuttered public-facing accountability instruments.

Since January 20, 2025, the Department has initiated four new investigations under Section 117-into Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Michigan-amid reports of inaccurate and untimely foreign source gift and contract disclosures.

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