The United States House of Representatives passed a measure increasing restrictions on foreign contributions to universities on March 27. UT may face more scrutiny over its foreign gifts and contracts, which includes tuition and fees paid by foreign sources.
If passed by the U.S. Senate and signed by the president, the “Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions Act,” or the DETERRENT Act, you would reduce the foreign gift and contract reporting threshold from $250,000 to $50,000. The bill would also ban foreign gifts and contracts from countries the U.S. Department of State has marked “countries of concern,” such as China, Iran and Pakistan, if the university does not have a waiver from the Secretary of Education allowing them to engage with the countries.
Stephen Slick, director of the Intelligence Studies Project, said in an email federal agencies use disclosure requirements to analyze possible threats to students, faculty and staff members.
“America’s leading research universities have been long standing targets of foreign intelligence services,” Slick said. “States like China have sought to recruit faculty, students and staff at US colleges as sources of information or influence. Closely related, foreign states are also interested in gaining access to university research with military applications or with commercial value.”
Universities must disclose foreign gifts and contracts to the U.S. Department of Education twice a year under the Higher Education Act. Bill author and Rep. Michael Baumgartner said on the floor of Congress that the loose language of the current restrictions partially led to underreported funds.
“Let’s be clear,” Baumgartner said. “Every dollar from an adversarial nation comes with strings attached, expectations about what gets taught, which research gets funded, and who gets hired or silenced.”
UT previously struggled to fulfill the current foreign disclosure requirements, according to a report from UT’s Office of Internal Audits. In 2023, the office reported a “high” risk level of “adverse effects” for its reporting procedures and said it did not provide guidance for reporting at the institutional level. The Department of Education can remove federal student aid funding, and the Department of Justice could sue universities who under report foreign disclosures, according to the bill and report.
The University released additional guidance for foreign gift and contract reporting last year but did not respond to comment on whether they revised the reporting procedures. The University declined to comment on whether their current reporting methods would fit new restrictions.
