30 colleges cut research ties to 'problematic' foreign entities — at the Pentagon's orders
by Jason Swensen deseret news · KSL.comKEY TAKEAWAYS
- The Pentagon directed 30 universities to cut ties with "problematic" foreign entities.
- Universities risk losing federal funding if they don't comply with Department of Defense directives.
- Seven universities exceeded compliance, enhancing research security against foreign exploitation threats.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Pentagon's ongoing involvement with American higher education institutions continued this week with the announcement that 30 universities, at its direction, had cut research connections with "foreign entities of concern."
The Defense Department heralded the "successful completion" of its initial research security audits at the 30 unnamed U.S. universities.
The higher education institutions were issued "formal notifications" last August by the DOD, calling on them to conduct reviews of academic, financial and research collaborations with flagged foreign organizations.
Schools were directed by the DOD to assess their exposure of sensitive research — while also implementing strict mitigation plans that include terminating "problematic partnerships."
The Pentagon warned that noncompliant schools would risk losing federal research funding.
"Universities are critical partners in executing a wide range of Department of War research programs, and the Department must therefore ensure that our research investments are well protected from foreign exploitation," said Joseph Jewell, assistant secretary of defense for science and technology, in August.
The notifications focused on ties between American higher educational institutions and foreign entities identified as "problematic" by the National Defense Authorization Act.
The NDAA list names 130 academic and research institutions located in China, Russia and Iran that have reportedly been confirmed to engage in troublesome activities.
The NDAA "problematic" list includes a diverse collection of institutions such as China's Academy of Military Medical Sciences and Army Infantry College, Iran's Baqiyatalla University of Medical Sciences and Russia's Institute of Radio-Engineering and Electronics.
"These institutions have been confirmed to engage in activities that increase the likelihood of U.S. government-funded research and development efforts being misappropriated," according to the DOD. "Such misappropriation enables adversarial government interference that directly threatens America's national security and scientific integrity."
US universities severing ties with 'problematic' institutions
The Pentagon noted Monday that all 30 universities had "fully mitigated" relationships with foreign entities identified by the NDAA. The DOD-directed audits reportedly resulted in more than 80 termination-related actions across the 30 universities that included cutting relationships with NDAA-identified institutions, as well as "precautionary terminations" of institutions not on the NDAA list.
The DOD also praised seven universities for going "above and beyond" its requested actions by implementing "significant mitigation measures" to safeguard research.
The institutions included Oklahoma State University, Penn State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of South Carolina, University of Southern California, University of Texas at Austin, and Virginia Tech University.
"Rather than settling for minimum compliance, these institutions took bold, self-initiated steps to protect their labs, faculty, and intellectual property from foreign exploitation," said Jewell in Monday's DOD announcement.
"Their proactive commitment ensures that groundbreaking research directly empowers the American warfighter and strengthens our nation's technological edge."
The Pentagon added it will continue to update the NDAA "problematic" list — and assess U.S. schools that retain relationships with entities on the list.
"Our work will continue," said Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael.
"Institutions that fail to meet research security standards are on notice: Taxpayer dollars will not support institutions whose partnerships put the American warfighter or the nation's technological advantage at risk."
Higher education and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
The Pentagon-ordered research security audits at the 30 unnamed universities are part of a growing list of the DOD's direct involvement in higher education since Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was appointed last year.
Last month, Hegseth instructed the nation's service academies — including the U.S. Military Academy (West Point), the U.S. Air Force Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy — to cease appointing civilians to tenured faculty positions.
Tenure, asserted Hegseth, leads to academic stagnation and faculty complacency.
"Additionally, (tenure) contributes to curriculum that drifts from the mission of educating our warfighters to the research priorities of the tenured academics," wrote Hegseth in a DOD memo.
Meanwhile, in May of 2025, the secretary instructed service academies to offer admission "exclusively on merit" — adding an applicant's race, ethnicity or sex are not to be considered.
Nixing all elements of affirmative action ensures "only the most qualified candidates" are admitted, trained and commissioned to lead "the finest fighting force in history," said a Hegseth-signed DOD memo.
"Selecting anyone but the best erodes lethality, our warfighting readiness, and undercuts the culture of excellence in our Armed Forces."
Last March, Hegseth announced the Pentagon was cutting "senior service college fellowship" ties with several Ivy League and other elite schools, accusing targeted schools of "anti-American resentment" and "military disdain."
"For decades, the Ivy League and similar institutions have gorged themselves on a trust fund of American taxpayer dollars, only to become factories of anti-American resentment and military disdain," said Hegseth in a video posted on his X account.
Such schools have replaced the "study of victory" with "the promotion of wokeness and weakness."
And during his recent "State of the Force" address, Hegseth announced the formation of "America's Corps of Cadets" — a new DOD program established to expand "the pipeline of patriotic leaders of character" commissioning into the U.S. military.
Each participating school is designated a "Distinguished Military College" — a revived category that requires "exceptionally high standards of cadet discipline, tactical instruction, and military organization," according to the DOD.
The member institutions also receive "Honor School" status, which provides priority in officer commissioning.
Institutions added to the Corps of Cadets include Louisiana State University, Liberty University, Tuskegee University, Mississippi State University and Hillsdale College.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.