The facts about Qatar’s role in education and why I care

I recently agreed to evaluate Qatar’s oft-criticized partnerships with American universities as a consultant to Qatar’s U.S. embassy. I accepted the assignment because American education deserves to be protected and so do the facts.

I know a lot about education in Qatar already and look forward to learning more. But what I have seen so far is a campaign of distortion by Qatar’s critics that needs to be exposed.

A recent published article suggests that I am being paid to defend what it calls “pro-Islamist” influence in higher education. That claim is false and offensive. Qatar’s major investments in education have not been directed at manipulating U.S. institutions. Quite the opposite — the investments reflect the country’s commitment to importing American university programs and standards to benefit Qatar’s citizens, not the other way around.

These investments pay for Education City in Doha, a complex where respected institutions such as Georgetown, Northwestern and Cornell operate fully accredited branch campuses.

Critics of Qatar look at Department of Education data, note that Qatar is the largest foreign donor to American higher education and infer that something nefarious is happening. That is a deliberate misreading of the facts.

More than 90 percent of the funds reported to the department are spent not in the U. S. but in Qatar to fund the operations of American university facilities and operations there. When these contractual agreements are separated out, as the Department of Education’s database itself does, Qatar ranks thirty-fifth in payments to U.S. colleges, behind countries like Thailand.

Americans have long backed the idea that other countries should invest in education and adopt Western standards. U.S. policy has consistently encouraged modernization of foreign education systems because it serves America’s strategic interests. Qatar’s Education City reflects both the country’s effort to serve its own population and the realization of this vision for U.S. education.

The universities operate with complete autonomy in Qatar, controlling admissions, curriculum, faculty appointments and everything else that matters to an academic institution. Their agreements explicitly guarantee that their branches there have the same academic freedom and independence they enjoy on their home campuses in the U.S. Rather than undermine American values, these partnerships bring those values into a region that is hungry for them and benefits in many ways.

The future leaders of Qatar often get their start in Education City. Impressively, women outnumber men among the graduates of all the Education City campuses, another major step forward.

Unfortunately, critics claim that Qatar is responsible for rising antisemitism on American campuses. Lately, the loudest of these accusations has been promulgated by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, whose founder, Charles Asher Small, has testified before Congress using unsubstantiated claims that Qatari payments foster antisemitic and anti-democratic behavior.

But these assertions are not supported by research they cite. The organization relies heavily on a study by the Network Contagion Research Institute, which examined foreign donations and campus discourse. That study did not analyze Qatar individually. Instead, it assessed funding from all 57 member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation as a collective category. The study also says explicitly that no causal relationship was established between funding and antisemitism, and that any such connections were “exploratory” and “speculative.”

These claims have been further undermined by U.S. intelligence officials. During a May 2024 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines stated there was no evidence that Qatar played any role in influencing or supporting antisemitic protests on U.S. college campuses.

Despite this, Small's organization, which as he testified last year to the Knesset works closely with the Israeli government, has repeated the same false claims in multiple reports and public statements. These efforts are not about combating antisemitism but about using antisemitism to wage a politically motivated campaign against Qatar.

I have disclosed my engagement with the Qatari Embassy in accordance with all legal requirements. Throughout my career, I have championed academic integrity and transparency. It is disappointing to be attacked not for the substance of my work, but for the identity of a client I have chosen to advise.

My review of this issue is ongoing, but already one thing is clear. The loudest critics of Qatar are not engaged in an honest search for truth. They are advancing a political narrative that undermines the facts and the integrity of public discourse.

If we are serious about confronting antisemitism and safeguarding higher education, we must demand intellectual honesty and transparency from everyone involved in the conversation.

William Bennett was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as the third secretary of Education and as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy by President George H. W. Bush.