WATCH: PROF GIORDANO on foreign investment in US academia

Campus Reform Higher Education Fellow and Professor of Political Science Nicholas Giordano is concerned about the influence of foreign powers in U.S. colleges and universities.

Steve Grueber interviewed Giordano on “Real America’s Voice” on the America’s Voice network to discuss the negative consequences of foreign investment in American colleges and universities, particularly from China.

“We have to stop the foreign influence that’s taking place on college campuses throughout the country,” Giordano said. 

Giordano identifies three main areas of concern:

Problem 1: the money. Foreign entities provide billions of dollars to buy clout in US university systems. With a significant amount of investment coming from China, there is reasonable concern of the ideological influence from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) permeating college classrooms and the intellectual elite. 

As Grueber put it, university administrations that become “addicted to the money” may crack down on professors and students that contradict the golden goose that is the CCP.

Problem 2: the student pool. Just as institutions are increasingly dependent on foreign direct investment, they are also increasingly dependent on a growing percentage of international students. Giordano cites that foreign students generate approximately 30% of all revenue for American colleges and universities.

Certain departments in higher education, particularly STEM fields such as engineering and computer science, Giordano says, are densely populated with international students.

Giordano contends that the vast majority of these students earn their degrees in America to contribute to improving the infrastructure of their native countries. Although this is admirable, the United States is also in need of young innovative minds to revitalize domestic infrastructure.

Problem 3: the espionage. Approximately $1 trillion worth of intellectual property has been stolen by the CCP in recent years. Federal grant funding goes to the academy for developing new technologies, which are eventually appropriated by foreign spies in colleges and universities.

Giordano cites the January 2021 conviction of Harvard professor Charles Lieber and two Chinese nationals as an example of corrupt foreign influence. According to the Department of Justice, the Chinese nationals working in Lieber’s lab were active members of the CCP, and Lieber failed to disclose to the US government that his research projects were partially funded by the CCP.

To address this problem, Giordano argues that universities are ill-equipped to engage in risk-assessments for accepting foreign investment and that they need proper guidance on these issues.

Watch the full video above.