U.S. universities awash in foreign funding from Qatar, China, Saudi Arabia

U.S. universities have received tens of billions of dollars in the past four decades from foreign governments and entities, not all of them friendly.

Newly released data from the Education Department found that colleges accepted more than $5.2 billion in international gifts and contracts — partly for research — last year, part of the nearly $70 billion received since the federal government began requiring higher-education institutions to report their foreign funding.

The biggest overseas funder: Qatar, which has given $7.7 billion to U.S. universities over the past four decades, followed by China at $6.4 billion, Germany at $4.7 billion, England at $4.2 billion and Saudi Arabia at $4.2 billion.

In terms of recipients, Harvard led the list with $4.2 billion, then Carnegie Mellon University at $3.9 billion, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at $3.5 billion, Cornell University at $3.1 billion and the University of Pennsylvania at $2.8 billion.