The Department of Education released data on Wednesday detailing foreign funding to higher education in the United States, revealing that Qatar and China are the highest donors to domestic colleges and universities.
In 2025, over $5.2 billion in reportable foreign gifts and contracts were sent to Ivy League institutions, including Columbia, Georgetown, and Yale universities, according to the government’s analysis of mandatory foreign funding disclosures.
Last year, Qatar, the United Kingdom, China, Switzerland, and Japan were the top five foreign funders, in that order. Qatar gave around $1.1 billion, the U.K. gave over $633 million, China gave over $528 million, Switzerland gave over $451 million, and Japan gave over $374 million. The top five beneficiaries of those funds were Carnegie Mellon University at nearly $1 billion, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at around $1 billion, Stanford University at over $775 million, and Harvard University at over $324 million, according to Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s office.
“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,” McMahon said in a statement. “Under President [Donald] 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.”
The new data come as Qatar and China have long been known to be active in promoting their countries in the U.S., including through extensive lobbying operations in Washington, D.C. Between 2016 and 2024, Qatar spent the seventh highest amount of money among foreign nations on lobbying and public relations activities, coming in at $260.4 million, compared to Israel’s $195.1 million over the same period. China, boasting well over half a billion dollars in such spending, topped the chart.
A major faction of the Republican Party, represented by figures such as Tucker Carlson, has been particularly targeted by Qatari operatives, with lobbyists ramping up campaigns in recent months.
Overall, $67.6 billion in foreign funding to U.S. colleges and universities has been reported since 1986, though the majority of that funding has been disclosed to the government only since 2019, the Education Department said on Wednesday.
In terms of the overarching $67.6 billion figure, Qatar, China, Germany, England, and Saudi Arabia are the top five foreign donors to the U.S. higher education system. Qatar has given $7.7 billion, China has given $6.4 billion, Germany has given $4.7 billion, England has given $4.3 billion, and Saudi Arabia has given $4.2 billion.
Qatar has sent the most money to Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, Texas A&M, and Northwestern universities. Cornell received $2.3 billion from Qatar, Carnegie Mellon received $2 billion, Georgetown and Texas A&M each received $1 billion, and Northwestern received over $766 million, according to disclosures cited by the Trump administration.
China has sent the most money to Harvard, New York, Stanford, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Harvard has received over $607 million from China, New York University over $455 million, Stanford over $413 million, Yale over $393 million, and MIT nearly $356 million.
Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania are overall the top five recipients of foreign funding, according to the Education Department.
Harvard has received over $4.2 billion, with the top three donors being China, Switzerland, and England. Carnegie Mellon has received over $3.9 billion, with its top donors being Qatar, Bermuda, and Canada. MIT has received over $3.5 billion, with its top donors being Singapore, China, and Japan. Cornell has received roughly $3 billion, with its top donors being Qatar, China, and India. The University of Pennsylvania has received nearly $2.8 billion, with its top donors being Germany, China, and England.
U.S. universities illegally disclosed over $2 billion in foreign funding past the reporting deadline in 2025, according to the Trump administration. The data are in line with the research showing that since 2013, at least 100 U.S. colleges and universities illegally withheld information on approximately $13 billion in undocumented contributions from foreign governments.
TOP US POLITICAL FIGURES LEND LEGITIMACY TO QATARI FORUM ALLIED WITH ARRAY OF ANTI-AMERICAN GROUPS
Many of those governments are authoritarian Middle Eastern countries that have pushed anti-American agendas in the education system, as well as the harassment of Jewish students, according to the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy.
On campuses receiving such contributions, students reported greater exposure to “antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric,” as well as “higher levels of antisemitic incidents,” according to ISGAP’s analysis. The report stated that the relationship between those contributions and campus antisemitism “was stronger when the undocumented donors were Middle Eastern regimes rather than other regimes.”
