US Justice Dept probing Harvard over financial aid programmes, alleges China donor influence
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If found guilty of discrimination, Harvard could be cut off from billions of dollars in federal research funding and student financial aid.
PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON – The US Department of Justice (DOJ) said on July 20 that it has launched a new investigation into Harvard University, alleging that some of its financial aid programmes violate civil rights law by excluding American citizens.
The probe accuses Harvard of giving Chinese international students access to financial aid programmes in exchange for foreign contributions from sources inside China.
“The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced today it is opening a compliance review into Harvard University to determine whether its China-based financial aid programmes and practices exclude American-citizen students,” the department said in a statement.
Harvard said on July 20 that it “does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity or national origin in allocating financial aid”.
A university spokesperson said the Ivy League school based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was reviewing the DOJ’s latest letter to Harvard and would engage the government on the topic.
It is the Trump administration’s latest strike against the university, which has been embroiled in a court battle over billions of dollars in frozen federal funding since 2025.
The investigation also expands the scope of the White House’s college pressure campaign, bringing global academic partnerships under scrutiny alongside allegations of campus anti-Semitism, racial discrimination in admissions and political bias in faculty hiring.
“Schools cannot take federal dollars and then turn around and accept money from foreign sources to give financial aid that deliberately excludes American citizens,” Assistant Attorney-General Harmeet Dhillon said in a statement.
If the DOJ finds Harvard did discriminate in its aid awards, the university could be cut off from billions of dollars in federal research funding and student financial aid.
The move signals a potential escalation of the Trump administration’s focus on Chinese influence at US colleges, particularly Harvard.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio in 2025 called for an investigation into possible sanctions violations at the university over its academic partnerships with Chinese organisations.
US law requires universities to report donations from foreign sources exceeding US$250,000 (S$322,500) a year. Harvard has previously said it has filed reports for decades “as part of its ongoing compliance with the law”.
The school has also previously cast Trump administration probes as “retaliatory actions against Harvard for its refusal to surrender our independence and constitutional rights”.
The fresh DOJ probe is based on a government audit of detailed foreign donation data, which President Donald Trump mandated from private universities through an executive order in 2025.
Harvard received nearly US$4.5 billion from foreign sources between 1986 and 2026, more than any other college in the country, according to federal data. China was the top source of those donations, at more than US$630 million.
In a letter to Harvard, Dhillon wrote that the college must give investigators access to a trove of documents detailing its donations from Chinese-based or affiliated sources by July 31.
Non-compliance, she added, could result in enforcement measures – which could include the suspension of federal funding.
The US government has increasingly leveraged civil rights investigations to exert pressure on colleges as it seeks to reshape higher education. As part of another investigation into Harvard’s admission practices, the DOJ sued Harvard in February over non-compliance with document requests.
In June, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from implementing a plan to bar foreign nationals from entering the US to study at Harvard.
China’s position is that “normal education and academic exchange should not be disrupted for political purposes”, the Chinese Embassy in Washington said, adding that education cooperation between the two countries was mutually beneficial.
The Justice Department has recently taken on a more prominent role in the Trump administration’s crusade against elite colleges, opening multiple lawsuits and investigations against Harvard alone in 2026 after negotiations between the university and White House officials stalled over a potential settlement to restore current and future research. BLOOMBERG, REUTERS
