By: Fern Sidman

By any metric, the American university has become a global marketplace. But according to explosive new data unveiled by the U.S. Department of Education this month, the scale, origin and opacity of foreign money flowing into U.S. higher education is far more vast—and potentially more troubling—than even seasoned observers had imagined.

As reported on Thursday by The Jewish News Syndicate (JNS), a new federal portal that went live on Jan. 2 is now laying bare the foreign financial arteries that sustain hundreds of colleges and universities. At the center of the revelations is a startling statistic: Qatar has emerged as the single largest source of foreign funding for American higher education, eclipsing not only China and Saudi Arabia but also traditional Western allies.

The data is not anecdotal. It is statutory.

Under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, federally funded universities are legally required to disclose—twice annually—any gifts or contracts from foreign sources totaling at least $250,000 in a calendar year. Yet for years, compliance was erratic at best. According to JNS, the former Biden administration all but neglected enforcement, leaving the American public largely blind to the scope of foreign involvement in campus life.

That has now changed.

The Trump administration, through the Department of Education, has resurrected Section 117 with a purpose-built digital dashboard that aggregates more than a decade of disclosures. The result is a panoramic view of foreign influence in academia—and it is staggering.

As of Jan. 31, 2025, the portal shows $62.4 billion in total foreign contracts and gifts disclosed to the Education Department across 117,152 reports from 194 countries to 527 U.S. colleges and universities.

But one nation towers above the rest.

Qatar: The Quiet Titan of Campus Cash

According to figures highlighted in the JNS report, Qatar alone accounts for approximately $6.6 billion in funding to American universities—nearly $2 billion more than Germany, and far surpassing China, Canada, England or Saudi Arabia.

The distribution of Qatari money is equally revealing. Cornell University: $2.3 billion, Carnegie Mellon University: $1 billion, Texas A&M University: $992.8 million and Georgetown University: $971.1 million

“In particular, this portal already shows huge amounts coming in from Qatar,” Kenneth Marcus, chairman and CEO of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, told JNS. “It is hard to imagine that this amount of money doesn’t imply some amount of influence, and it’s fair to ask what kind of influence Qatar is obtaining in exchange for its money.”

That question has now become unavoidable.

Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, did not mince words in comments to JNS. “Our college campuses are being flooded with foreign cash, but every single dollar given by our adversaries comes with strings attached,” Walberg said. “America’s adversaries exploit these financial ties to steal research, spread divisive propaganda, push indoctrination and undermine free speech.”

He added bluntly: “Enough is enough. The Trump administration is making the reporting of foreign funds easier and more transparent so we can protect our students and the integrity of American education.”

Walberg’s framing reflects a growing bipartisan anxiety: that universities—desperate for revenue in an era of shrinking endowments and ballooning administrative costs—have become conduits for geopolitical influence operations.

While the dashboard represents a leap forward in transparency, experts warn that the data still leaves critical questions unanswered.

Brandy Shufutinsky, director of the education and national security program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS that the portal lacks granularity on the true origin and purpose of foreign funds.

“For example, if an international NGO or governmental department gave funds to an American university, does that university have to disclose the name of that NGO or governmental department?” she asked.

She also questioned whether the portal explains how the funds are being used.

“The idea for the portal should not only be to increase transparency around Section 117, but to allow users to truly understand the level of foreign funding and influence taking place in the American higher education system,” Shufutinsky said.

The Department of Education has not yet responded publicly to these concerns, though JNS has sought comment.

The data has also revealed patterns involving Jewish and Israel-affiliated institutions—patterns that complicate simplistic narratives about foreign influence.

 

According to the portal, Yeshiva University in New York received $1,097,897 in foreign funding, all from Canadian sources, across three transactions. Rabbinical College Bobover Yeshiva Bnei Zion, also in New York, received $1.5 million, likewise exclusively from Canada.

The now-defunct Michigan Jewish Institute, a Chabad-affiliated school in the Detroit area, reported a single $250,000 Israeli contract between 2011 and 2013 before shuttering in 2016.

Meanwhile, Brandeis University—which describes itself as “animated by values rooted in Jewish history and experience”—reported $7.8 million in foreign funding across 17 transactions, including:

United Nations: $3.9 million

Malaysia: $1.4 million

Hong Kong: $821,000

United Kingdom: $570,000

France: $420,000

Canada: $405,000

Switzerland: $250,000

Roughly 56% of Brandeis’s foreign funding came from restricted contracts, while 30% were gifts and 14% restricted gifts.

Even Israel—so often invoked in campus political debates—accounted for a comparatively modest total of $419 million across 1,323 transactions to about 105 institutions, with the largest single recipients being Brigham Young University through contracts in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon framed the portal as a national security imperative. In a statement cited by JNS, she said: “After years of neglect by the Biden administration, the new portal will assist our institutions of higher education in fulfilling their statutory responsibilities and enable us to protect our national security by facilitating improved compliance.”

The language is not hyperbole. As the United States confronts rising foreign espionage, cyber intrusion and ideological warfare, universities—long assumed to be insulated by academic norms—are now seen as strategic vulnerabilities.

What the portal ultimately represents is not just a trove of financial records, but a reckoning.

For decades, the global prestige of American higher education has been underwritten by foreign capital with minimal scrutiny. Now, the architecture of that system is exposed in stark numerical relief.

The implications are profound. Universities may soon face congressional hearings, compliance audits, and demands to disclose not merely the amount of foreign money received—but the ideological and research consequences of accepting it.

As the JNS report observed, the question is no longer whether foreign governments are funding American campuses. The question is whether the United States is prepared to confront what those governments expect in return.