LOS ANGELES (AP) — By age 23, Emma MacTaggart was already noticing how rare her free time was — and how it was seldom screen-free.

The UNC System Board of Governors wasted little time on Thursday in approving a definition for academic freedom that has been a year in the making. The policy protects the rights of all faculty to engage in teaching, research and scholarly inquiry without undue influence. But it also spells out that academic freedom is not absolute.

WASHINGTON — American colleges and universities received gifts and contracts worth more than $5.2 billion from foreign entities in 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Education, which also recently published summaries of foreign investment in U.S. higher education dating back to 1986. 

Qatar, the United Kingdom, China, Switzerland, Japan, Germany and Saudi Arabia marked the largest sources of reportable gifts and contracts to U.S. institutions in 2025, according to the agency, which released the latest funding disclosures this month.