A judge has ruled the University of Oxford could maintain the anonymity of an Azerbaijan-related donor with ties to the country’s ruling family. The ruling ended a months-long legal struggle with news website openDemocracy that began in December 2023, when the donation was revealed in an investigation by openDemocracy into donations to Russell Group universities.
The judge said” “The [University] has a committee and a process in place for just this purpose and in this case after careful scrutiny it found no issues that would render the donation unwelcome.”
Since the publication of openDemocracy’s report, Oxford has refused to disclose the source of the donation in question, which was made in 2018 for £10m towards the Oxford Nizami Ganjavi Centre. However, it only revealed that the donation came from Azerbaijan and that the person behind it was a “highly successful businessperson who wished to remain anonymous.”
The University has also made known that the donation was “facilitated” by Azerbaijan president’s sister-in-law.
Beyond this donation, openDemocracy’s report found that Russell Group universities had received more than £281m in anonymous donations since 2017. Moreover, out of the 24 Russell Group universities, Oxford accepted by far the highest amount, £106m from just 68 donors, on average, more than a million and a half pounds per donor. These findings, along with fears relating to Chinese influence on UK universities, were a driving force behind a campaign for stricter disclosure rules for universities.
Notably, in April of this year more than 120 academics, campaigners, politicians and journalists called for legislation “requiring universities to publish a register of large donations and research funding” in an open letter. The open letter, which was signed by eight Oxford academics, cited openDemocracy’s report and was addressed to the then Secretary of State for Education Gillian Keegan and Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson.
Additionally, in June of 2023, MPs failed to pass legislation to ensure UK universities would publish the names of any foreign donor who gave a university more than £50,000.
After publishing the report, openDemocracy filed a freedom of information request to the University of Oxford “asking for the identity of the donor and copies of communications around the handling of the donation.” Yet, the University refused to disclose the information, citing commercial interests that could be harmed by the information being disclosed as well as data protection concerns.
Consequently, openDemocracy contested the case with the Information Commissioner’s Office, which earlier this month sided with Oxford.
