American colleges that are grabbing foreign cash will soon have to come clean about how much they are taking and from whom they are taking it.
The Department of Education has notified colleges that a new portal for reporting foreign cash is now operational, reminding colleges that they are legally obligated to disclose foreign funding.
Any gifts or contracts that top $250,000 will need to be reported as of Jan. 2, according to The Daily Signal.
“The Trump administration is launching a new state-of-the-art system for colleges and universities to more efficiently and securely report their foreign gifts and contracts as required under the law,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon told the outlet.
“After years of neglect by the Biden administration, the new portal will assist our institutions of higher education in fulfilling their statutory responsibilities and enable us to protect our national security by facilitating improved compliance.”
Colleges that do not report foreign cash could face Department of Justice prosecution.
“America’s taxpayer-funded colleges and universities have both a moral and legal obligation to be fully transparent with the U.S. government and the American people about their foreign financial relationships,” McMahon said.
“We are grateful to the many stakeholders for their feedback in designing this portal and look forward to vigorously protecting our educational institutions from potentially harmful foreign influence,” she added.
An agency representative has said the Biden administration failed to make enforcement of foreign cash reporting a priority.
A senior Department of Education official previously told The Daily Signal that the Trump administration will investigate colleges which try to evade reporting.
Harvard, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Michigan, and the University of Pennsylvania are already under investigation for how they report foreign money.
A March report from Americans for Public Trust noted that $60 billion in foreign money has flowed to American colleges in recent decades.
China gave colleges more than $176 million in 2024 alone, the report said.
The report noted that about $20 billion of the $60 billion went to 20 schools: Harvard University, Cornell University, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University, Yale University, Georgetown University, and Columbia University.
In April, President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled “Transparency Regarding Foreign Influence at American Universities.”
“Protecting American educational, cultural, and national security interests requires transparency regarding foreign funds flowing to American higher education and research institutions,” Trump said, noting that during his first term, $6.5 billion in previously unreported foreign funds came to light.
Trump said the Biden administration took a step backwards, but noted, “It is the policy of my Administration to end the secrecy surrounding foreign funds in American educational institutions, protect the marketplace of ideas from propaganda sponsored by foreign governments, and safeguard America’s students and research from foreign exploitation.”
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