Over 30 years ago, Congress enacted Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) in light of concerns about the growing financial relationship between U.S. universities and foreign sources. Congress balanced academic freedom and national security by mandating financial transparency through required reporting of contracts with and gifts from a foreign source that, alone or combined, are valued at $250,000 or more in a calendar year.

Gifts and Contracts Involving Foreign Sources

• Foreign Gifts and Contracts Report [MS Excel, 3.5MB]

Published Material

• Notice of Investigation and Records Request, Georgetown University and Texas A&M University [PDF, 323KB]
• Notice of Investigation and Records Request, Cornell University and The State University of New Jersey ("Rutgers University") [PDF, 322KB]
• Letter to Seyfarth Shaw (July 24, 2019) [PDF, 775KB]
• Letter to American Council on Education (July 30, 2019) [PDF, 692KB]
• Letter to American Council on Education (September 6, 2019) [PDF, 145KB]
• Letter to Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (September 6, 2019) [PDF, 162KB]
• Letter to National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (September 6, 2019) [PDF, 148KB]
• Letter to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (September 26, 2019) [PDF, 12MB]
• Letter to University of Maryland (September 26, 2019) [PDF, 3MB]
• Letter to Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (November 27, 2019) [PDF, 4MB]
• Letter to Harvard University (February 11, 2020) [PDF, 5MB]
• Letter to Yale University (February 11, 2020) [PDF, 6MB]
• New Electronic Announcement on New Reporting System

• Section 117 of the Higher Education Act [PDF, 2.2MB]

Questions and Comments

If you have questions about the Department's Section 117 efforts or information you wish to provide on related issues, please send to:

ForeignSourceReporting@ed.gov or

U.S. Department of Education
Office of the General Counsel
Attn: HEA Section 117 Reporting
400 Maryland Avenue, S.W.
Washington, DC 20202