Britain’s top universities have received more than £281m in anonymous donations in the last five years – including from individuals and companies overseas, an investigation has found.
Oxford University alone accepted more than £106m from donors who wished to remain anonymous – the highest amount of any Russell Group university – between 2017 and 2023, according to data obtained by the investigative website openDemocracy.
This included £10m from a donor from Azerbaijan, £13.3m from an organisation in the US, and £4.2 m from an organisation registered in China.
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Oxford University said all donations were reviewed by an independent committee taking into account "legal, ethical and reputational issues".
The figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, suggest that at least £281m was given to institutions in the Russell Group – which represents 24 research-intensive universities in the UK – from donors who wanted to remain anonymous between January 2017 and May 2023.
Universities are usually aware of the identities of donors, but they can decide to keep their identities confidential and record the donations as anonymous.
Emails obtained by openDemocracy suggest that leaders in the university sector approached Whitehall officials last year to voice their concerns about proposals by MPs to improve transparency around overseas donations.
In January 2022, Conservative MP Jesse Norman proposed an amendment to the government’s Bill on free speech and academic freedom in higher education which called for universities to disclose any gift worth more than £50,000 with any “overseas counterparty” by reporting these to the Office for Students (OfS) and the Education Secretary for publication on a public register.
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While many of the donations to Russell Group universities were from the UK, others were from wealthy individuals and companies abroad, including China, Hong Kong and Singapore, the investigation found.
Conservative MP Robin Walker, chair of the Education Select Committee, said: “Universities are hugely important institutions and as they are in receipt of large amounts of public money it is beholden on them to be transparent about their other sources of funding – and particularly those from overseas.”
George Havenhand, a senior legal researcher at the campaign group Spotlight on Corruption, has called for “far greater transparency” around donations.
A spokesman for the Russell Group said: “Philanthropy is an increasingly important income stream for universities at a time when deficits in both domestic teaching and publicly funded research are growing."
“Donors have no influence over how Oxford academics carry out their research, and major donors are reviewed and approved by the University’s Committee to Review Donations and Research Funding, which is a robust, independent system taking legal, ethical and reputational issues into consideration before gifts are accepted."
“We take the security of our academic work seriously, and work closely with the appropriate Government bodies and legislation.
“Much of our overseas collaborative research addresses global challenges such as climate change and major health problems where international involvement is important in delivering globally relevant solutions.”
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