With a deadline looming, higher education officials will need to get skilled on using a new portal for reporting foreign gifts and contracts.
On January 2, 2026, the Department of Education (ED) will launch a new Section 117 reporting portal, in which they said they “have attempted to incorporate many comments provided by institutions of higher education (IHEs) since creation of the existing portal (June 2020).” A summary of the updates is included in the Electronic Announcement but includes new features like a “bulk uploads” and an automatic log off.
In a December 1 Electronic Announcement, ED reminded institutions about the reporting requirements for IHEs that are owned or controlled by a foreign source or receive a gift or enter into a contract with a foreign source in the amount of $250,000 or more. This can be alone or a combination of all gifts or contracts within a calendar year.
The announcement outlined training opportunities on the new portal and reminded institutions about the deadline on the first business day after January 31, which is Monday, February 2, 2026.
The new reporting portal will be available at www.ForeignFundingHigherEd.gov on January 2. Currently, there will be no changes to the current guidance regarding Section 117. Institutions can find information in the FSA Knowledge Center at www.fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/topics/section-117-foreign-gift-and-contract-reporting .
A training webinar will be held on December 15 at 2:30 p.m. (Eastern), with a recording available on December 18.
Important dates and deadlines include:
- December 15, 2025 (2:30 p.m. ET) – Training webinar
- December 6, 2025 – Access to the current reporting portal will no longer be available.
- December 18, 2025 – The recording of the training webinar and associated materials will be available.
- January 2, 2026 – New reporting portal goes live.
- January 31, 2026 – Next date for IHEs to submit Section 117 disclosure reports. (Since this date is on a Saturday, IHEs must submit reports no later than Monday, February 2.)
Technical or access issues can be sent to ForeignGiftsAccess@ed.gov. Institutions with questions about the new reporting portal need to include “New Portal Implementation” as the subject line. All other questions about Section 117 can be sent to ForeignSourceReporting@ed.gov.
