Conservative nonprofit's proposal points to states as best way to reduce foreign influence in higher ed

A conservative-leaning public policy group recently released a proposal to increase transparency of foreign funding toward American universities.

On Dec. 3, the Manhattan Institute released “Model Legislation to Track Foreign Funds to American Universities,” which notes the major influence that foreign nations such as China and Qatar hold over the American government and higher education.

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”In recent years, the discussion of what to do about foreign influence on campus has centered on Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, which requires universities to disclose foreign funding to the Department of Education (ED),” Neetu Arnold writes. “Improving Section 117 is an important task, though typical partisan gridlock now characteristic of Congress has stymied reform efforts.”

”In the meantime, states committed to monitoring potentially harmful foreign funding can implement more effective measures than the federal government by establishing their own reporting requirements,” Arnold continues.

”States should generally adopt a broad definition of reportable foreign funds similar to Section 117, to avoid malign foreign actors and universities taking advantage of loopholes such as routing funds from one country to another to avoid reporting requirements,” Arnold notes.

The policy analyst argues that state foreign disclosure laws serve as a better alternative to federal measures, and that by strengthening such state laws, the “loopholes that malign foreign actors repeatedly exploit to avoid disclosure of their funding campaigns would close.”

Suggested recommendations to existing state foreign disclosure laws include making donor names publicly available, providing consistent definitions behind each contribution, and decreasing the donation threshold that schools are required to report.

”By lowering the foreign funds reporting threshold, state laws provide the public with higher-quality information regarding foreign contributions,” the piece states. “Section 117’s threshold of $250,000 overlooks significant contributions, such as a $125,000 contract between the University of Maryland and the Chinese tech company Alibaba on surveillance research.”

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Discussions about foreign influence over American higher education have only increased in recent years.

In October 2023, House Republicans introduced legislation that would reduce the foreign donation reporting threshold from $250,000 to $50,000.

”Adversarial countries are using America’s college campuses to undermine our nation’s interests,” a fact sheet for the DETERRENT Act reads, noting that the bill would serve as “a crucial step towards transparency and protecting American education and students from malicious foreign influence.”