Trump Administration Opens Investigation Into Harvard's Financial Aid For International Students

The Justice Department is investigating whether Harvard University is allowing Chinese donors to create scholarships that exclude American students, adding to nan barrage of national inquiries nan Trump management has opened successful its conflict against nan Ivy League school.

Justice Department officials announced nan caller reappraisal Monday, saying Harvard’s overseas backing disclosures “raised concerns” astir imaginable favoritism against U.S. students. The agency did not specify which danasiwa programs are being targeted and emphasized it “has not reached immoderate conclusions.”

The investigation is aimed astatine Harvard’s “China-based financial assistance programs,” nan Justice Department said. The agency said Chinese donors person fixed money to Harvard to support financial assistance programs constricted to students from definite countries. That regularisation could magnitude to forbidden favoritism based connected state of origin, nan section said.

“Schools cannot return national dollars and past move astir and judge money from overseas sources to springiness financial assistance that deliberately excludes American citizens — doing truthful is illegal, and we will extremity it wherever we find it,” said Harmeet Dhillon, who leads nan department’s Civil Rights Division.

Harvard said it was reviewing nan Justice Department notice.

“Harvard follows nan rule for required reporting of donations and, accordant pinch our ineligible obligations nether Title VI, does not unlawfully discriminate connected nan ground of race, ethnicity, aliases nationalist root successful allocating financial aid,” nan assemblage said successful a written statement.

In a statement, Liu Chang, a spokesperson for nan Chinese embassy successful Washington, said China-U.S. acquisition practice is mutually beneficial. “China maintains that normal acquisition and world speech should not beryllium disrupted for governmental purposes,” Liu said.

Like galore U.S. universities, Harvard accepts overseas backing done nonstop donations aliases contracts. The Trump management has pushed for greater transparency astir extracurricular money, informing that accepting backing from overseas adversaries is simply a nationalist information risk.

Federal disclosures from Harvard show it has accepted $630 cardinal from Chinese sources complete a play of decades. Overall, it has reported astir $4.5 cardinal successful overseas funding. The Justice Department cited those figures but did not azygous retired immoderate donors aliases programs being reviewed.

The investigation is simply a compliance review, meaning it’s initiated by nan national authorities alternatively than responding to an extracurricular complaint.

Unlike nan immense mostly of U.S. universities, Harvard and a mini number of different schools supply need-based scholarships to world students connected nan aforesaid ground arsenic U.S. students. Grants and different assistance from nan national authorities are reserved for American students, but Harvard “has its ain occupation and danasiwa money disposable to overseas students,” according to a Harvard financial assistance website.

In immoderate cases, overseas donors person fixed money to beryllium utilized for world students.

In 2014, Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin, a Chinese mates that co-founded nan existent property institution SOHO China, donated $15 cardinal to Harvard to supply financial assistance for Chinese students. Their gift drew blowback from critics successful China who said it was a betrayal to springiness money to overseas schools alternatively of Chinese universities.

The Justice Department’s announcement makes nan different ineligible statement that steering backstage backing to students of definite countries amounts to a civilian authorities usurpation for U.S. students.

“Harvard appears to beryllium accepting these costs and, successful adherence to their restrictions, providing student financial assistance to overseas students, presumably Chinese, based connected their nationalist root — to nan imaginable detriment of students of different nationalist origins, including American citizens,” nan agency said.

The Trump management has many times opened caller national investigations against Harvard successful its conflict to triumph obedience from nan nation’s oldest university.

Harvard has been a premier target successful nan administration’s push to extremity “wokeness” and conflict alleged antisemitism successful American higher education. A national judge has blocked nan White House from cutting billions of dollars successful national investigation backing from Harvard amid nan feud.

Even arsenic nan ineligible conflict continues, nan authorities has sought caller lines of attack, seeking to limit Harvard’s expertise to enroll overseas students and U.S. subject members, and launching investigations into nan school’s admissions process.

Binkley and Tang constitute for nan Associated Press.