Ed Dept pitches foreign gifts reporting tool, but uncertainty remains

The U.S. Department of Education plans to set up a new way for colleges to report gifts and contracts from foreign sources, according to a notice the agency published in the Federal Register Friday.  According to the department, 70% of colleges and universities that receive such gifts or contracts are not properly disclosing them. From 2012 to 2018, 162 institutions submitted more than 21,000 disclosures.The notice comes after several higher education groups urged the department to clarify how and when colleges are expected to disclose foreign gifts and contracts. The Higher Education Act requires institutions to report contracts and gifts from foreign sources that total $250,000 or more. However, the Ed Department hasn't issued formal guidance for how they should do so. That's left institutions in the dark about several procedures, including how to submit corrections to their reports or how to handle multiple gifts from a single source.