FUNDING TO UNIVERSITIES BY GEORGE SOROS AND THE FOUNDATION TO PROMOTE OPEN SOCIETY

George Soros is one of the world’s most recognised financiers and philanthropists. With an endowment of $18bn, the Open Society Foundations, the network of foundations he established is reputed to be the world's third largest philanthropic fund, after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the United Kingdom's Wellcome Trust.

The Open Society network is the largest private funder of initiatives relating to justice, good governance, democracy and human rights, operating in over 120 countries. It is a complex web of foundations and funding bodies. According to our study of university funding by George Soros' Foundation to Promote Open Society, the main grant-making fund in his Open Society Foundations network, higher education is a significant beneficiary of Open Society philanthropy:

• The Foundation disbursed over $184m in funding to 171 universities and higher education institutions in 51 countries between 2014-18.

• Foundation to Promote Open Society funding to universities almost doubled from $32m in 2014, to $62m in 2018. The number of beneficiaries has jumped 46% from 65 in 2014 to 95 in 2018. 

• US universities are the biggest beneficiaries receiving 72% of giving over the past five years.

• The number of universities outside the US receiving Foundation to Promote Open Society funding has grown by over 100% over the past 5 years.  In 2014, 31 non-US universities received Open Society funding. By 2018 that number had leapt to 64.

• In terms of grant amounts, US universities are the biggest beneficiaries (72%), followed by UK (6%) while funding to Kyrgyzstan amounted to third biggest country beneficiary (5%).

• Bard College in New York State is the biggest beneficiary, receiving 28% of all giving to higher education institutions.  Between 2014-18, it received over $52m. (In 2020 it was announced Bard would receive a further $100m in Soros funding).

• The top five university beneficiaries are Bard College ($52.2m), Harvard University ($20.4m), Central European University ($14.4m), American University of Central Asia in Bishkek ($8.5m) and Columbia University ($5.7m).

• Eight out of the top 10 beneficiaries are US universities. The biggest non-US beneficiary is American University of Central Asia in Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan which received $8.5m, followed by the University of Oxford which received $4.5m.

• Regionally, North American universities are the biggest recipient of Gates Foundation funding. 70 institutions received 75% of giving.

• European universities are the second biggest group of beneficiaries, receiving around 9% of university giving between 2014-18.  47 universities received over $17m. The UK is the biggest beneficiary with $11.7m disbursed to 25 UK universities. 

• Asian universities are the third biggest regional beneficiary, receiving 6% of Open Society university funding in the past five years. The American University of Central Asia in Bishkek which received $8.5m makes Kyrgyzstan the biggest Asian beneficiary country.  Afghanistan was the next biggest country beneficiary receiving $1m shared between two universities.

• Latin American universities were the fourth biggest regional beneficiaries of Open Society university giving. 20 Latin American universities received $7.6m in funding.  Colombia was the biggest country beneficiary. It received $3.3m between six universities.  Venezuela was next, with universities in that country receiving $2m.

• African and Australasian universities are at the bottom of the university funding list. 16 African universities in six countries – Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania – received between them $4.5m in funding over the past five reported years. The University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa was the biggest recipient receiving $1.1m while the University of the Western Cape, also in South Africa, was the second biggest recipient receiving $717k. The University of Cape Town benefits relatively moderately from its long association with George Soros and his funding of scholarships in 1979 to that institution. It received $336k in awards in 2014 and 15.

• Only one Australasian university – the University of New South Wales – appears to have received funding from the Foundation for Open Society.