The election of Donald Trump is undermining Harvard University’s business model. The university dominates the Shanghai rankings thanks to its scientific excellence, a foundation managing $53.2 billion, and a network of 420,000 alumni. Drawing on Bourdieu’s “capital theory,” a study seeks to understand how the most prestigious university dominates its scientific field.

The Shanghai Rankings measure the scientific excellence of universities around the world. Of the top ten, eight are American; Harvard University has held the top spot since 2003. How can we explain the dominance of this private non-profit organization in a university field known for its high competitiveness?

With Rachel Bocquet and Gaëlle Cotterlaz-Rannard, based on Pierre Bourdieu’s “theory of capital,” we decode the economic model, or business model , of US research universities . The challenge is to understand how the most prestigious and powerful of them dominates its scientific field.

Harvard’s scientific excellence, symbolically recognized by the Shanghai ranking, results from the accumulation and conversion of economic, social, cultural, and symbolic capital. The systemic dimension that underpins the robustness of the business model makes it difficult to replicate. It is linked to this ability to simultaneously accumulate the four forms of capital and interconvert them.

Nearly 204,560 publications over the past five years

Bourdieu’s theory articulates four forms of capital: economic capital, cultural capital, social capital, and symbolic capital. The last being the societal recognition of the possession of the other three. Each form of capital contributes to the accumulation of other forms of capital through a process of inter-conversion; cultural capital is converted into economic, social, or symbolic capital, and vice versa.

Harvard is a research university. Its 2,445 professors and 3,048 affiliated researchers have the primary mission of producing scientific knowledge—cultural capital. Over the past five years, the Web of Science platform has listed 204,560 publications for Harvard, including 16,873 in peer-reviewed journals, making it the university that produces the most scientific knowledge. Its researchers are the most cited by the scientific community.

This cultural capital is converted into economic capital by obtaining funding: 6.5 billion dollars in 2024. The Faculty of Medicine is one of the US universities that receives the most funding from the federal government (National Institute of Health).

$53.2 billion foundation

This cultural capital is the subject of societal recognition through the awarding of prestigious prizes to its researchers: Nobel Prize, Fields Medal, Turing Prize, Pulitzer Prize, etc. This recognition corresponds to a conversion of cultural capital into symbolic capital, which reinforces the prestige of the institution.

This symbolic capital contributes through its conversion to the accumulation of other forms of capital, notably economic capital by encouraging donations to the university foundation by individuals or companies.

In 2024, the endowment (economic capital) from donations represents $53.2 billion, the largest endowment fund in the world for a university. In 2024, the return on investments of the foundation is 9.6%. This income allows $2.4 billion to be paid to the university, or 40% of its budget , to finance research projects.

Selection of the best students

Symbolic capital is also converted into economic capital by justifying high tuition fees. In 2025, a Harvard bachelor’s degree costs $61,670 per year , making it one of the most expensive institutions in the United States. The MBA program costs $81,500 per year, and Harvard Law School costs $82,560. Some wealthy individuals may make donations to Harvard to facilitate the admission of their offspring .

Academic prestige attracts excellent students and contributes to the accumulation of social capital. For admission to its bachelor’s program, Harvard requires the highest SAT score of any US university (1500-1580). Its admission rate of 3% is the lowest in the country.

When they graduate, these students irrigate society in its scientific spheres – Roy Glauber, George Minot –, political – eight presidents of the United States are Harvard graduates –, economic to create or lead large companies – Microsoft, JP Morgan, IBM, Morgan Stanley, Amazon, Fidelity Investments, Boeing, etc. –, literary – William S. Burroughs, TS Eliot – and artistic – Robert Altman, Natalie Portman.

Harvard Alumni Association

All these graduates, particularly by joining the Harvard Alumni Association , represent an accumulation of social capital that represents a network of 420,000 people. The university mobilizes this network for fundraising, participation in its governance bodies or events.

Businessman Kenneth Griffin exemplifies this mechanism. In 1989, he graduated from Harvard with a degree in economics. He founded Citadel LLC, one of the most renowned hedge funds in the United States, and, incidentally, became the 34th ^richest  person in the world. He gave $450 million to his alma mater (university): $300 million to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and $150 million to Harvard College. His goal is to fund research and subsidize students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Kenneth Griffin’s fame in financial circles encourages students to come to Harvard and, ultimately, maintains the process of accumulation and conversion when they work in finance.

The university institutes a symbolic competition among its graduates over the amounts donated to the foundation. The largest donors are recognized by the prestige of having their name given to a campus building, or even a faculty. In 2015, John Paulson, a Harvard Business School graduate and founder of one of the largest hedge funds in the United States, donated $400 million to the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences, which became the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences .

Faced with Trump, the vulnerability of the “business model”

The election of President Trump opens a period of hostility with Harvard by threatening its economic model.

The first reason is tax-related. Donations to the university’s foundation offer significant tax benefits to donors in terms of deductions. The foundation is exempt from tax on profits made on many of its investments. A revocation of these two benefits by the U.S. administration would reduce the amounts available to fund research and the production of cultural capital.

The second is related to federal research funding. In 2024, Harvard received $686 million from the federal government. Cutting this funding would limit the university’s ability to develop scientific knowledge.

Harvard’s elimination of the ability to award certificates of eligibility, or DS 2019 , to international students, particularly doctoral and postdoctoral students, would limit the number of individuals contributing to research. In 2025, Harvard University has 10,158 international students, including 250 professors and 6,793 students, or 27.2% of the total student body.

Author Bio: Michel Ferrari is Professor of Management at the University of Geneva and an Affiliate Researcher at SKEMA Business School