Top UK Universities Received £281 Million in Anonymous Donations Probe Finds

All Souls College in Oxford, England, on April 3, 2020. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Britain’s leading research universities have received at least £281 million in anonymous donations since 2017, including from overseas donors, an investigation has found.

Analysis of financial contributions to Russell Group universities—a group of 24 members that includes the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge—was conducted by openDemocracy.

The media platform obtained the data after it filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the universities.

The findings revealed that the University of Oxford accepted more than £106 million from donors who wished to remain anonymous between 2017 and 2023.

The money could be tracked back to donors from Azerbaijan (£10 million), a U.S. organisation (£13.3 million) and an organisation in China (£4.2 million).

Anonymous donations, pouring into the University of Cambridge in the same period amounted to £25-49.9 million.

According to openDemocracy, the UK’s top universities lobbied the government in order to keep the names of donors secret.

Cambridge University’s former vice-chancellor Stephen Toope was reported to tell a government official in 2022 that fundraising abilities could be “severely impacted” if the donors’ anonymity got waived.

“Many donors, especially those from countries that place emphasis on privacy as important, may feel that their giving is a private matter and expect high levels of donor privacy to be upheld by the institutions that they give to,” Mr. Toope wrote in his letter to a Whitehall adviser.

‘Missed Opportunity’

The move came after the Conservative MP Jesse Norman had proposed to amend the Higher Education Act 2023.  Mr. Norman had suggested that universities disclose any gifts from “overseas counterparty” worth more than £50,000 and report them to the Office for Students (OfS) and the Education Secretary.

The Tory MP said his proposal was “diluted into a ‘duty to consider’” and called the decision a “missed opportunity.”

Reacting to the findings by open democracy, Mr. Norman said on Thursday:

“Well this is interesting, but not alas very surprising.”

Concerns over the impact of anonymous overseas donors on UK top research-intensive universities were also voiced by academics.

Exeter University professor, John Heathershaw, took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to suggest that an “orchestrated campaign by Russel Group to thwart Mr. Norman’s attempt to bring transparency” posed “huge risks of improper influence.”

Due Diligence

A Russell Group spokesman, however, said that the group “scrutinises gifts and donations thoroughly in full compliance with UK legislation.”

According to the group, philanthropy constitutes an important form of income for universities, struggling with low shortage of domestic teaching staff and poor public funding of research.

“Our universities will always prefer to publicly recognise the contribution donors make to higher education in the UK, but there are occasions when individuals seek privacy after due diligence checks are complete,” the spokesman said.

Most of the income received by English higher education providers usually comes from course fees and education contracts.

In the years 2020/2021, the OfS reported a total income of £37.3 billion.

Donations and endowments formed 4.8 percent or £784 million of the total amount. This compares to £851 million in the years 2019/2020.

The University of Oxford has assured that “donors have no influence over how Oxford academics carry out their research.”

Major donors are reviewed by the university and undergo “a robust and independent” inspection, which takes legal and reputational issues into consideration “before gifts are accepted.”

The university’s spokesman added that international involvement was important in “delivering global solutions” to challenges such as climate change and global health problems.

Unlike in the UK, higher education institutions in the U.S. are legally required to disclose any gifts from and contracts with a foreign source valued at $250,000 or more in a calendar year. The U.S. universities are obliged to provide this information to the Department of Education on a semi-annual basis.

PA contributed to this report.