The Trump administration is stepping up work to uncover what it sees as malign foreign influence at US colleges and universities, officials said on Monday.
This comes after the US Department of Education revealed that Qatar was the largest foreign source of funding to American universities in 2025.
Officials further said that the US State Department would assist the Department of Education in that effort.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to cut federal funding to universities over issues such as pro-Palestinian protests against the Israel-Hamas War in Gaza, transgender policies, climate initiatives, and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, raising free speech and academic freedom concerns.
In April 2025, Trump issued an executive order calling for the 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 seek to strengthen universities' compliance, transparency
Officials declined to provide specific examples of how foreign funding had unduly influenced higher education institutions and said they were primarily seeking to strengthen universities' compliance and improve transparency.
Last week, the US Department of Education reported that Qatar was the largest foreign source of gifts and contracts to American universities in 2025, totaling over $1.1 billion, followed by Britain ($633 million) and China ($528 million).
The top university recipients of those foreign funds were Carnegie Mellon University (nearly $1b.), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (nearly $1b.), Stanford University ($775m.), and Harvard University ($324m.).
University ties with Qatar
Recently, the Middle East Forum (MEF) reported that Qatar has gained sizable control over Georgetown University.
Over the past 20 years, Qatar has given $1b. to Georgetown’s Doha and Washington campuses. The money has sustained both campuses and funded faculty, research initiatives, and endowed chairs on the Washington campus, the report said.
This is particularly relevant given Qatar’s relative hostility to Western countries and its support for terrorist organizations such as Hamas, the report said.
The new transparency policy comes after multiple reports, including a 2019 report by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), claimed that US universities were not reporting their financial partnership transactions with Qatar and other foreign parties.
ISGAP found that Yale University had declared only one grant from Qatar since 2012, for $284,668, but it estimated that the school received about $15,925,711 during that time.
Mathilda Heller contributed to this report.