The File
Foreign money flows into American universities on a scale the universities spent years declining to report, until the Department of Education started asking. This file documents the statute, the enforcement findings, and the largest funder.
The Documented Record
Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, 20 U.S.C. 1011f, requires institutions to disclose foreign gifts and contracts of 250,000 dollars or more. [DOCUMENTED]
The Department of Education's October 2020 enforcement report identified approximately 6.5 billion dollars in previously unreported foreign funding after opening investigations into a dozen universities. [DOCUMENTED]
The 2019 Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report documented more than 150 million dollars in Hanban funding to US Confucius Institutes and systemic disclosure failures. [DOCUMENTED]
Department of Education Section 117 data show Qatar among the largest foreign sources of funding to US universities, with billions in disclosed gifts and contracts. [DOCUMENTED]
Sources
- 20 U.S.C. 1011f, US Code
- Institutional Compliance with Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, U.S. Department of Education, 2020
- China's Impact on the U.S. Education System, Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, 2019
- Section 117 Foreign Gift and Contract Reporting, Federal Student Aid, U.S. Department of Education
Connected Files
GREEN-001 documents the Qatari funding infrastructure this data surfaces. NGO-003 documents the influence architecture running through the nonprofit sector.