U.S. Department of Education Investigating $6Billion of Unreported Foreign Gifts to Ivy League Universities

The Department of Educations is launching investigations into both Harvard and Yale Universities as both “potentially failed to report hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign gifts and contracts. “Since July, the Department has uncovered more than $6 billion in unreported foreign gifts from countries including Qatar, China, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.”

“Yale University may have failed to report at least $375 million in foreign gifts and contracts, choosing not to report any gifts and contracts over the last four years.”

Harvard University also “has failed to report fully all foreign gifts and contracts as required by law.” This comes after the chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department “was indicted for lying about his involvement with the Chinese government’s Thousand Talents Plan”. The United States Senate has designated this Thousand Talents Plan as undermining “the integrity of the American research enterprise and endanger[ing] our national security” by incentivizing “individuals engaged in research and development in the United States to transmit the knowledge and research they gain here to China in exchange for salaries, research funding, lab space, and other incentives.”