FundING TO NON-UK UNIVERSITIES BY THE UK’S 150 Richest

Introduction

Download the summary on funding by the UK's 150 richest

Giving by Britain’s 150 richest individuals - as identified by the Sunday Times 2019 Rich List - to non-UK universities has leapt by 595 percent in the past five years according to our latest study of university philanthropy. Over £750m has been given to international universities by British-based ultra-High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) over the past five years (2014-18). The study is reported for the first time by UniversityPhilanthropy.com and the London-based public affairs and policy advisory firm The Cape Partnership.

Key findings

Funding by the UK’s 150 richest individuals – as identified by the Sunday Times 2019 Rich List – shows that £751m has been given to non-UK universities over the past five years.
21 percent of the Top 150 Sunday Times Rich List have made 197 donations to 86 non-UK universities in 22 countries over the past five years.
In 2014 22 universities received significant donations from the UK’s richest; by 2018 the number had doubled to 43.
59 percent of giving in this study went to universities in the US.
49 universities in 14 countries received donations of over £500,000 from the UK’s richest.
Giving by Britain’s richest is either made as a direct gift or through their dedicated charitable trust.
Giving to non-UK universities has increased dramatically over the past five years. In 2014, the UK’s 150 richest individuals gave £42m to 22 non-UK universities. In 2018 they gave nearly £292m to 43 non-UK universities.
The rise in giving appears to mirror the significant rise in accumulation of wealth by the UK’s richest over the past five years. In 2018 there were 149 billionaires on the Sunday Times Rich List compared to 104 in 2014, representing a 43 percent increase. This is a much bigger rise than the 18.5 percent growth in billionaires globally for the same period.
The biggest individual donor to non-UK universities in the past five years is the Anglo-Ukrainian billionaire Sir Len Blatvanik who has given £235m (Sir Len has also been a generous benefactor of UK higher education, notably Oxford University).
Norwegian Trond Mohn has given £160m in the past five years to a number of Norwegian universities, while Anglo Hong-Kong billionaire Samuel Tak-Lee has given nearly £120m to non-UK universities in the past 5 years.
Harvard University is the biggest beneficiary of giving to a non-UK university (£202m), and the recipient of the single biggest donation. Sir Len Blavatnik made a donation of $200m (£165m) to Harvard in 2018.
The second biggest beneficiary is the University of Bergen which has received nearly £130m in five years from Trond Mohn.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the third biggest recipient following the donation of £118m by Samuel Tak-Lee in 2015.