Trump administration steps up efforts to scrutinize foreign funding of universities

2026-02-24 04:42:20

WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The Trump administration is stepping up work to uncover what it sees as malign foreign influence at U.S. colleges and universities, officials said on Monday as they announced that the State Department would assist the Department of Education in that effort.

President Donald Trump has threatened to cut federal funding to universities over issues such as pro-Palestinian protests against U.S. ally Israel’s war in Gaza, transgender policies, climate initiatives and diversity, equity and inclusion programs, raising free speech and academic freedom concerns.

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Trump in April 2025 issued an executive order calling for enforcement of Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, which requires colleges that receive federal funding to report gifts or contracts worth more than $250,000 from any foreign source, and the Department of Education in December launched a new portal for universities to report that funding.

Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers said the State Department’s new role would “ensure an invigorated compliance assurance effort by the federal government.”

“The Department of State will be applying our national security expertise and our expertise countering foreign malign influence to bolster oversight efforts by the Department of Education,” Rogers told reporters in a briefing at the State Department.

Officials declined to spell out specific examples of how foreign funding had unduly influenced higher education institutions, and said they were primarily seeking to boost compliance by the universities and improve transparency.

The U.S. Senate subcommittee on investigations in 2019 issued a report documenting China’s impact on the U.S. education system, sparking renewed enforcement of the disclosure rules.

U.S. colleges and universities disclosed 8,300 transactions totaling $5.2 billion in 2025 - which includes funding from governments as well as private companies and individuals, the education department said in a statement. The largest source of funding last year was Qatar ($1.1 billion), followed by Britain ($633 million) and China ($528 million), it said.

Editing by Stephen Coates

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Humeyra Pamuk

Thomson Reuters

Humeyra Pamuk is a senior foreign policy correspondent based in Washington DC. She covers the U.S. State Department, regularly traveling with U.S. Secretary of State. During her 20 years with Reuters, she has had postings in London, Dubai, Cairo and Turkey, covering everything from the Arab Spring and Syria’s civil war to numerous Turkish elections and the Kurdish insurgency in the southeast. In 2017, she won the Knight-Bagehot fellowship program at Columbia University’s School of Journalism. She holds a BA in International Relations and an MA on European Union studies.

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