A Soviet Union-born, US businessman has donated £75m to Oxford University to help fund the creation of a new finishing school for international statesmen.
Leonard Blavatnik, 53, whose fortune is estimated at £3bn, has given the University the money for the planned £100m School of Government, which would be built in the university’s new Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, a former hospital site in the city centre.
The proposals are currently under formal consideration, but if the scheme is agreed by the university, it will open in 2012, offering a one-year Master’s degree.
It is hoped that the school will create over 40 academic posts and rival the Kennedy school of government at Harvard.
Mr Blavatnik, who features on the Forbes Top 100 Billionaire Rich-List, is founder of Access Industries and made his money in oil and other industries. The university has described his donation as “one of the most generous philanthropic gifts in the University’s 900-year history”.
There has been a correction to this article: Mr Blavatnik is not Russian but a U.S. citizen. Apologies for the mistake (Ed).
