US colleges received $5.2 bn in foreign funds in 2025, shows govt data

By Janet Lorin

 

US colleges received more than $5.2 billion in gifts and contracts from foreign sources in 2025, with more than half of those dollars going to just four schools: Carnegie Mellon University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and Harvard University.  

The Education Department released the data Wednesday, touting a new website it says is aimed at bringing more transparency to foreign funding at US colleges as the Trump administration continues a broad-based campaign to reshape higher education. 

 

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the disclosures offer visibility into possible national security concerns. 

 

“This transparency is essential not only to preserving the integrity of academic research but also to ensure the security and resilience of our nation,” McMahon said in a press release.  

 

 

Even in President Donald Trump’s first term, the issue was a focus: His administration investigated colleges for potentially failing to report gifts. Much of that scrutiny was aimed at China, amid the race for technology dominance and concerns about safeguarding intellectual property. 

 

Between 1986 and 2025, Harvard took in more foreign money — some $4.2 billion in total — than any of the 555 institutions reporting data to the Education Department. Carnegie Mellon was second with $3.9 billion, followed by MIT with $3.5 billion.

 

The data for 2025 show that entities in Qatar were the largest foreign source of funds to US universities, with more than $1.1 billion reported. Other major sources of gifts and contracts to US universities include the United Kingdom, with more than $633 million; China, with more than $528 million; Switzerland, with more than $451 million; and Japan, with over $374 million.

 

Qatar hosts branches of six US universities, including Carnegie Mellon, one of the top recipients of funding. Carnegie Mellon recently extended its Qatar contracts by a decade.

 

Carnegie Mellon has operated a campus in Qatar for more than two decades in alignment with its academic mission and in full compliance with all applicable US laws, said Chuck Carney, a spokesman. More than 90 per cent of those funds are spent in Qatar to operate the campus there, he said.

 

MIT received about as much as Carnegie Mellon, with 2025 disclosures showing each school reported almost $1 billion. Other major recipients include Stanford, with more than $775 million, and Harvard, with over $324 million. None of those schools had an immediate comment. 

 

Universities receiving federal money are required to disclose foreign gifts and contracts with a value of $250,000 or more annually.

 

The government has been collecting data about foreign ties to US colleges for more than 30 years, though enforcement of regulations has been uneven. The overhaul of the data portal comes after Trump issued an executive order last April saying his administration aimed to “protect the marketplace of ideas from propaganda sponsored by foreign governments, and safeguard America’s students and research from foreign exploitation.”

 

The department said in its press release that between 1986 and 2025, Harvard had received more money from parties in “countries of concern” than any other school.