American colleges and universities to disclose more than $6.5 billion in funding and resources from foreign sources, including China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.
HIGHER ED MUST REPORT THE FOREIGN GIFT MONEY THEY GET
REPORT FOREIGN GIFTS HERE
to make it easier for institutions to report foreign gifts and contracts valued at more than $250,000. To date, that portal has recorded more than 7,000 transactions, totaling $3.8 billion. Some 60 of the schools that have filed through the portal so far had not submitted any reports between 1986 and June 2020, and their disclosures alone totaled $350 million for the July 31, 2020, reporting period.
REPORT https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/institutional-compliance-section-117.pdf
Section 117 of the Higher Education Act (HEA) requires institutions of higher education to report foreign gifts and contracts. Yet, over the course of this last year, the Department has uncovered billions in unreported financial ties.
Department of Education has uncovered billions in unreported financial ties (press release and Section 117 page).
The threat of improper foreign influence in higher education is real.
Transparency in foreign funding of higher education is not just something I think is important. It’s the law.
After four decades of pervasive non-compliance by colleges and universities, this report — produced by the Department’s Office of the General Counsel (OGC) — empowers Americans with the information they deserve about the current relationships between taxpayer-supported institutions and foreign actors, who may not have the best interests of students at heart.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations described foreign spending on U.S. institutions as “a black hole” because schools “routinely” fail to comply with the law, and foreign money can come with strings attached that might compromise academic freedom.
Among the report’s major findings:
- Huawei, the Chinese technology giant supported by the Chinese Communist Party, had financial ties to nearly all the investigated institutions. Huawei targets its funding to issues key to national security, such as nuclear science, robotics, and online cloud services.
- Two Chinese companies are working with one American university on a research project involving crowd surveillance and predictive behavior technology, which the Chinese government could harness for nefarious purposes.
- A university accepted a $25,000 sponsorship from Kaspersky Government Security Solutions, a cybersecurity company with suspected ties to the Russian government, to host a cybersecurity conference.
- A large donation by a Saudi prince to a university empowered the Saudis to push an ideological-driven narrative through the teaching and learning done on specific topics relevant to the Middle East.
- Two universities failed to accurately account for foreign funding of their campuses in Doha, Qatar, in part by the Qatari government. The Qatari Foundation exerted its influence to stifle free speech.