US colleges got $1.1 billion from Qatar, $285 million from Saudi in 2025, says Department of Education

Cornell University was the top recipient of Qatari funding, receiving $2.3 billion, or nearly 30% of all of the Gulf states funding to U.S. schools.

By JNS

American colleges and universities received more than $1.1 billion from Qatar and over $285 million from Saudi Arabia in 2025, according to new data that the U.S. Education Department released on Wednesday.

It displays that data in an online portal, which previously went up to the beginning of 2025 and now includes information about $5.2 billion more in foreign funding.

“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,” stated Linda McMahon, the U.S. education secretary.

“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,” she said.

“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 Education Department’s portal now details $67.6 billion in funding, based on 124,180 transactions to 555 schools.

Qatar, which paid $7.7 billion to U.S. schools topped the list of countries, followed by China $6.4 billion), Germany ($4.7 billion), England ($4.3 billion), Saudi Arabia ($4.2 billion), Canada ($4.1 billion), Switzerland ($3.8 billion), Japan ($3.7 billion), the United Kingdom ($2 billion) and France ($1.9 billion).

Cornell University was the top recipient of Qatari funding, receiving $2.3 billion, or nearly 30% of all of the Gulf states funding to U.S. schools.

Other schools that received a big part of Qatar’s 1,260 transactions were Carnegie Mellon University ($2 billion), Georgetown University and Texas A&M University ($1 billion each), Northwestern University ($766.1 million), Virginia Commonwealth University ($383 million), Harvard University ($4.16 million), Houston Community College ($30.2 million), Xavier University of Louisiana ($19.5 million) and University of Colorado Denver (17.6 million).

Pennsylvania State University received the most Saudi funding ($201 million), followed by George Washington University ($176.7 million), Massachusetts Institute of Technology ($135.2 million), Arizona State University ($131.5 million), George Mason University ($129.5 million) and University of Southern California ($125.2 million).

The next top recipients of Saudi monies, below $100 million, were Harvard ($94.4 million), Stanford University ($90.2 million), University of Colorado Boulder ($89.2 million) and Tufts University ($84.6 million).

According to the Education Department data, U.S. schools received $1.79 billion from the United Arab Emirates, with $469.9 million going to Boulder, followed by New York University ($197.1 million), University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center ($152.1 million), Harvard ($131.2 million) and MIT ($109.5 million).

Israel spent nearly $464 million on U.S. schools, including $52.3 million at Brigham Young University, followed by $21.6 million to Johns Hopkins University ($21.6 million), University of Virginia ($20.8 million), University of California, San Diego ($18.7 million), Oregon Health and Science University ($18.1 million), University of Southern California ($16.6 million) and Harvard ($16.3 million).

The Jewish state also funded University of California, San Francisco ($13.7 million), Northwestern ($13.6 million) and University of Minnesota Twin Cities ($12.7 million).

U.S. schools also received funding from Egypt ($179 million), Turkey ($83 million), Jordan (almost $68 million), Lebanon (almost $31 million).

The Education Department said that the “state of Palestine” provided $7,043,000 to U.S. schools, and that the “Palestinian territories” paid U.S. schools $3,335,899. The United States does not recognize a Palestinian state. (JNS sought comment from the department.)

The funding from the Palestinian “state” went to Indiana University of Pennsylvania ($6.4 million) and Brown University ($643,000), and the “Palestinian territories” funded Harvard ($1.6 million), Indiana University of Pennsylvania ($1.5 million) and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (almost $286,000).