Northwestern is set to receive at least $220 million from foreign governments via contributions made since 2020 amid deepening woes over the Trump administration’s crackdown on foreign funding at universities.
With one of the richest endowments in the country at $14.3 billion, NU has amassed a diverse global group of partners, including Saudi Arabia, Israel, Japan and the United Kingdom.
The Daily looked at all contracts, restricted contracts and gifts made to NU from foreign sources beginning in 2020. Each year, NU and other universities are required to make those records publicly available. In accordance with Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, universities must report any contracts and gifts from foreign sources larger than $250,000.
On Wednesday, however, the Trump administration signed an executive order threatening to withhold federal funding to universities that “obscure details” on their foreign funding. On various occasions, the Trump administration has made clear its growing discontent with certain countries it believes are operating in America’s higher education system without any oversight.
“This financial infiltration enabled foreign governments to steal taxpayer-funded intellectual property and reshape how our elite campuses teach about Israel and the Middle East,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement released by the Education Department on Wednesday.
NU has already been a subject of that debate due to its relationship with Qatar.
The University is one of the biggest beneficiaries of Qatari money in Education City, a Qatar Foundation-funded complex in Doha. Since its first agreement in 2007, NU has received more than $500 million in contracts from Qatar, according to Education Department data.
Many of NU’s contracts with Qatar were inked before 2020 and are still active, according to federal filings. The University’s contract with the Qatar Foundation to operate its campus there expires at the end of the 2027-28 school year.
During University President Michael Schill’s testimony before the House Committee on Education and Workforce last year, NU’s relationship with Qatar was thrown into the spotlight. Republican lawmakers berated Schill over the University’s historical ties with Qatar.
Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah) lambasted NU at the hearing for partnering with the “same Qatari government” that “harbors leaders of Hamas and is estimated to have given the terrorist organization of Hamas about $1.8 billion.”
QF previously told The Daily that about 90% of its payments to NU go toward covering the operating costs of NU-Q — such as faculty salaries and student services — while the remaining 10% helps cover “administrative costs” on the University’s Evanston campus.
Other top foreign contributors to NU since 2020 include Switzerland, Ireland and Germany. Switzerland itself pooled over $41 million in contracts and restricted contracts. Many of the contracts are still ongoing and raking in capital for the University.
Today NU’s funding continues to grow, with over $1 billion in contracts and grants and over $280 million in private gifts in fiscal year 2024, according to the University’s latest financial report.
Last week, the Trump administration pressured Harvard University to turn over its foreign fund records going back a decade. It remains to be seen whether the president will enact this measure for other universities like NU.
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