UNITED STATES
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Criticism over universities’ acceptance of Saudi funding

Saudi Arabia gifted close to US$270 million to 144 American universities in 2019, and a total of US$440 million since the death of Jamal Khashoggi on 2 October 2018, and these numbers do not include funds yet to be paid out, reports Middle East Eye.

“These figures don’t take into account contracts that started after Khashoggi’s murder but have not been paid out, a gargantuan figure that totals nearly US$700 million,” Responsible Statecraft, which analysed the data from the US Department of Education, reported. Jamal Khashoggi, a Middle East Eye and Washington Post columnist, was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018.

The top university on the list is the University of Toledo, which was gifted US$23,263,343 from October 2018 to now. Then comes George Washington University, which was gifted US$19,033,137. Third place goes to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which was gifted a total of US$16,885,405. According to Sunjeev Bery, the executive director at Freedom Forward, a US-based human rights group, there is no reason why universities should be accepting money from Saudi Arabia.
Full report on the Middle East Eye site