Wisconsin Republican lawmakers want to limit the University of Wisconsin System’s academic and research collaboration with six countries amid concerns over national security and foreign influence in education.
The bill, which passed the Assembly on Jan. 22, prohibits study abroad, dual degree programs and research collaborations with China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Qatar. While there are currently no UW-Madison programs in four of the targeted countries, the university has three study abroad programs in China and one flagship program in Russia.
Study abroad opportunities in China range across majors and offer internships and language immersion. It remains unclear if these programs would be immediately terminated if the bill passes.
“It’s not really fair to our state to be paying for all the research partnering with an organization who may be based in China,” Rep. Alex Dallman, R-Mareson, said. “We're not going to restrict the UW System from having any of these partnerships moving forward. We just need to have them get a risk assessment from the federal government.”
It also remains unclear what this means for research. As of 2019, UW-Madison participates in nine active research collaborations with Chinese universities. Additionally, UW-Madison participates in the Wisconsin Russia Project, which aims to build social science research.
In order for an academic program in an affected country to continue, the bill would require the Board of Regents to prove the program is “valuable to students” and submit an annual report detailing each program with these countries, including information on each of their national security risk assessment requests. The bill would also require the Board of Regents to receive a national security assessment from a federal law enforcement agency.
The university opposes the legislation, saying they believe the bill mirrors already existing safeguards.
“The bill would introduce significant administrative burdens and delays…Requiring the Board of Regents approval and federal security assessments for nearly all partnerships could slow down responses to emerging research opportunities,” UW Office of Government Relations said in a testimony on Jan. 27.
Under the bill, UW would be forced to pay twice the amount of the program's determined value to the Joint Committee on Finance if the university does not comply. This legislation comes after UW-Madison already lost research funding as the Trump Administration cut $12 million last year.
Dallman’s testimony on Tuesday pointed to a report from the U.S. Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party saying universities in Wisconsin worked with researchers linked to the CCP and Chinese military.
While the committee did find “close collaborative partnerships” between Chinese universities and several schools in their report from September 2025, no UW System school was mentioned.
Dallman and other Republican lawmakers defended the bill’s national security necessity, but representatives across the aisle have their doubts.
“Qatar was on the list of enemies for this bill, and if you look at the drafting notes, it was four days after President Trump got a plane [from them] that Qatar was taken off,” Rep. Angella Stroud, D-Ashland, said.
President Trump accepted a luxury Boeing 747-8 from Qatar last May, a gift from the ruling House of Thani, to use as the new Air Force One jet. This type of gift exchange is prohibited under this bill, which bars UW employees from accepting gifts or payments from foreign adversaries.
Dallman removed Qatar on Dec. 3 from the definition of foreign adversary with Amendment 1. Meaning that while UW schools are still prohibited from collaboration with Qatar, it is not technically a “foreign adversary” under this legislation.
