The Department of Education released data showing how much foreign governments gave to U.S. colleges and universities in 2025. Leading the parade of nations donating to higher education in America are Qatar, the United Kingdom, and China. Qatar gave around $1.1 billion, the U.K. gave over $633 million, and China gave over $528 million. Rounding out the top five giving nations are Switzerland, which gave over $451 million, and Japan, which gave over $374 million.
The Education Department published the data as part of the Trump administration's transparency and accountability efforts.
“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. This marks a new era of transparency for the American people and streamlined compliance for colleges and universities, making it easier than ever for institutions to meet their legal obligations,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Under President 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. This transparency is essential not only to preserving the integrity of academic research but also to ensure the security and resilience of our nation.”
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.
What do these governments, friend and foe, want for their generosity?
Higher education in America may be a hub of anti-Americanism, antisemitism, and woke nonsense, but it also features some of the best and brightest young minds in the world. This is because students from developing countries will do anything to earn an American degree, especially in the sciences, where we are still the most innovative and dynamic nation on Earth.
Between 1996 and 2020, academic technology transfer contributed up to $1 trillion to the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP). These inventions supported nearly $1.9 trillion in gross industrial output and bolstered over 6.5 million jobs.
On average, three new startups and two new products are launched every day in the U.S. based on university-developed technology. And foreign governments are vying to tap into that largesse.
Naturally, nations like Qatar and China are looking to build goodwill and make it harder for Washington to punish them for being a-holes. They are also looking to exploit their relationships with U.S. colleges and purchase breakthrough technologies that, by all rights, should remain in the U.S.
Texas GOP Rep. Troy Nehls has introduced legislation that would prevent U.S. schools from "selling the intellectual property (IP) rights of their research to certain foreign countries," according to the Daily Caller.
Nehls’ Preventing Research Ownership Transfer to External Competitive Threats (PROTECT) Act would establish civil penalties for U.S. universities that sell the intellectual property rights of research conducted by their institutions, staff or students to foreign governments such as China, Russia or Iran, according to the bill’s text first obtained by the DCNF. The legislation would also allow the Department of Justice and the State Department to seize any funding a university received from such foreign nations in exchange for covered research.
“Under no circumstance should U.S. universities be selling the intellectual property rights of their research to foreign, hostile nations,” Nehls said in a statement provided to the DCNF. “Our country’s universities should be focused on advancing American students’ education rather than jeopardizing the national security of the United States and spoon-feeding our adversaries a technological edge. My legislation ensures [that] U.S. universities aren’t compromising the security of our nation by prohibiting them from selling the IP rights of their research to nations that hate us.”
That this is even a problem says a lot about American schools and where their loyalties lie.
Qatar is looking to change its image as a backward, Islamic terror-supporting state into a benevolent, forward-thinking, responsible member of the international community. It might work in the liberal, East Coast salons in New York, New Haven, and Boston, but it won't fly on Capitol Hill.
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