(Bloomberg) -- The president of Northwestern University, responding to questions about foreign funding sources at a congressional hearing, said the school is reviewing a contract with Qatar for its journalism-focused campus there.

“The review of that contract is being done,” Northwestern’s Michael Schill told lawmakers Thursday, adding that the agreement expires in the 2027-2028 academic year. 

Congress has been stepping up scrutiny of foreign funding as they investigate rising antisemitism on US college campuses since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Earlier this year, the Texas A&M University System said it would close its Qatar campus by 2028 after conducting a review that was prompted by “heightened instability in the Middle East.” 

Cornell, Carnegie Mellon and Georgetown are also among the six US universities with outposts in Qatar’s Education City, a campus for global education institutions.

“For decades, Qatar has proudly partnered with leading US universities to provide educational opportunities for students in Qatar and the region,” Ali Al-Ansari, a spokesperson for the Qatari embassy in Washington, said in an email. “Qatar and the US stand together against those who seek to spread disinformation and undermine the bridges of cooperation that our two nations have built.”

Schill testified before the House Education and the Workforce Committee along with counterparts from Rutgers University and the University of California at Los Angeles. 

The leaders of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania resigned shortly after a hearing before the same committee in December, at which they declined to condemn calls for genocide against Jews as a violation of university policies. 

The committee chair, North Carolina Republican Virginia Foxx, said Northwestern and Rutgers were summoned because of deals they made with pro-Palestinian protesters to clear encampments on their campuses. Congressman Burgess Owens, a Utah Republican, asked Schill for a “transparent accounting” of Northwestern’s money from Qatar.

Northwestern’s campus in the Middle Eastern country opened in 2008 and offers academic programs in journalism, media and communication. The money goes for operation and management of the campus, Schill said. The provost’s office is conducting the review of the Qatar campus but any decision about its future is ultimately up to Northwestern’s board of trustees. 

Funding to US colleges from foreign countries has been under scrutiny in Congress. Qatar has sent almost $6 billion to US universities, the most among foreign countries, according to data compiled by the US Education Department, which tracks foreign gifts and contracts. A bill in Congress would require more information in disclosures. 

(Updates with comment from Qatari embassy spokesperson in fifth paragraph.)

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