The United States Department of Defense ordered UCLA on Aug. 17 to review its foreign partnerships or risk losing eligibility for future federal research funding, a U.S. official confirmed Monday.

UCLA must report the results of the audits to the department no later than Aug. 31, the department said in an Aug. 17 press release that did not name the notified universities. Thirty colleges total – including Harvard University, UC Berkeley and the University of Southern California – were ordered to review their foreign collaborations, according to a list acquired by Fox News.

“Universities are critical partners in executing a wide range of Department of War research programs, and the Department must therefore ensure that our research investments are well protected from foreign exploitation,” said Joseph Jewell, assistant secretary of defense for science and technology, in the press release.

The universities must examine their academic, financial and research partnerships with foreign organizations for potential national security risks, the department said in the press release. They also must end foreign partnerships that the department deems problematic, according to the press release.

UCLA’s international agreements database listed collaborations with universities on the Pentagon’s list of foreign institutions engaging in problematic activities – such as Fudan University, Shandong University and Tsinghua University – as of Monday afternoon. 

UCLA declined to comment on the department’s order after multiple requests.

The order targets partnerships with “foreign entities of concern,” including institutions located in China, Russia and Iran identified under the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, a law that established a program to identify threats to federally funded research.

The department also wants the universities to terminate partnerships with organizations associated with Confucius Institutes, which are Chinese government-supported language and cultural programs at universities outside China. 

The order follows prior attacks on UCLA’s federal research funding. The federal government in July 2025 froze more than half a billion dollars in UCLA’s research grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy, alleging that the university allowed affirmative action in admissions, antisemitism and “men to participate in women’s sports.” UCLA disputes the merit of those allegations.

A federal judge restored most of the grants in August and September 2025 and separately ruled in November that the Trump administration could not freeze or threaten UCLA’s research grants.

[Related: One year after $584 million federal funding freeze, UCLA research still recovering]

The audits aim to prevent foreign exploitation, intellectual property theft and unauthorized technology transfer, the Pentagon said in the press release.

“The Department of War has zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security,” said Emil Michael, under secretary of defense for research and engineering, in the press release.