(Bloomberg) -- The Texas A&M University System will shut down its campus in Qatar after a review prompted by “heightened instability in the Middle East.”

The Qatar campus will close by 2028, the Texas school said in a statement Thursday following a vote by its board of regents. Texas A&M, with a presence in the country since 2003, is one of six US universities in Qatar’s Education City. The others include Georgetown, Northwestern and Carnegie Mellon. 

“The board has decided that the core mission of Texas A&M should be advanced primarily within Texas and the United States,” Chairman Bill Mahomes said in the statement. “By the middle of the 21st century, the university will not necessarily need a campus infrastructure 8,000 miles away to support education and research collaborations.”

Funding to US colleges from foreign countries has been under scrutiny in Congress recently as lawmakers investigate rising antisemitism on US college campuses since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. Qatar has sent $5.7 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 such disclosures. 

A spokesperson for the Qatar Foundation said Texas A&M’s decision was influenced by a disinformation campaign. 

“It is deeply disappointing that a globally respected academic institution like Texas A&M University has fallen victim to such a campaign and allowed politics to infiltrate its decision-making processes,” the foundation said in a statement.

--With assistance from Alex Tanzi.

(Updates with comment from Qatar Foundation in the fifth paragraph)

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