US universities disclose $5.2 billion in foreign funds for 2025 under federal transparency law
The U.S. Department of Education has released new data showing that American colleges and universities reported over $5.2 billion in foreign gifts and contracts in 2025. The disclosures cover more than 8,300 individual transactions and were filed under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, which requires institutions receiving federal funding to report foreign gifts or contracts valued at $250,000 or more annually.The newly released figures bring the total reported foreign funding to $67.6 billion since 1986, when Section 117 was introduced. The data has been made publicly available through the Trump Administration’s upgraded foreign funding reporting portal, which now includes expanded data visualisation tools and additional reporting fields.
Qatar tops 2025 list; Carnegie Mellon, MIT lead among recipients
According to the 2025 disclosures, Qatar emerged as the largest foreign funding source, contributing over $1.1 billion in reportable gifts and contracts. It was followed by:
- United Kingdom – Over $633 million
- China – Over $528 million
- Switzerland – Over $451 million
- Japan – Over $374 million
- Germany – Over $292 million
- Saudi Arabia – Over $285 million
Among U.S. institutions, Carnegie Mellon University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) reported receiving close to $1 billion each in foreign funding during 2025. Stanford University reported over $775 million, while Harvard University reported over $324 million.The Department stated that over $2 billion in foreign gifts and contracts were filed after the required deadline between February 28 and December 16, 2025, breaching statutory reporting requirements.
Harvard leads in funding from ‘countries of concern’
The Department’s long-term data review, covering 1986 to December 16, 2025, shows that Harvard University received more than $610 million from counterparties located in countries identified as “countries of concern.”Other institutions with significant disclosures from such sources include:
- MIT – Over $490 million
- New York University – Over $462 million
- Stanford University – Over $418 million
- Yale University – Over $400 million
Section 117 mandates public disclosure of foreign funding to safeguard national security and academic integrity. Institutions that fail to comply risk enforcement action by the U.S. Department of Justice and could potentially lose eligibility for federal student aid programmes.
New portal launched: Investigations underway
The Education Department recently launched a new public reporting portal that increases available data elements by 61 percent. Officials say the system is designed to improve transparency and simplify institutional compliance.On April 23, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order called Transparency Regarding Foreign Influence at American Universities, making stricter enforcement of foreign funding disclosures a top priority.Since January 20, 2025, the Department initiated four investigations under Section 117 against Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Michigan on the grounds of inaccurate or delayed disclosure.The disclosures submitted between December 17, 2025, and January 31, 2026, will be uploaded to the portal by February 28, 2026.
