Alumni asked for cash

University funding is once again in the news after reports of a new system encouraging donations from alumni. A scheme will also come into place on 1 August this year in which the government has pledged to match any donations made over the next three years.

The system is based around three tiers, with the first tier seeing the government match donations pound for pound, the second seeing £2 from the government for every pound and the third tier £3 for £1 in donations. The cap on government donations for the third tier has been set at £5 million, and it is reported that Oxford and Cambridge have signed up for this option.

Durham is also planning on signing up for the highest tier, confirms a spokesperson from the University Development and Communications Office. “Durham is one of the UK’s elite universities, a status we have achieved by always reaching for excellence – in our research, teaching, and college life. Because we always push one another to succeed, we’ll be doing the same with the matching gift scheme, signing up for the highest, most challenging but rewarding tier,” they said.

“We are confident that our alumni, friends, staff, students and their parents will rally to support the University through their financial gifts over the next three years,” they added. “As to how the matching funds will be allocated, we’re still in policy discussions about this, being mindful that our decision must motivate donors and be in the best interests of the University as a whole.”

This system is being encouraged in an attempt to recreate the philanthropy of many alumni in the 19th century. This period resulted in a large endowment for many UK Universities – Durham’s endowment funds now total around £30 million. The income from these funds contributes to the costs of the University’s general activities and also to the maintenance of historic buildings.

The size of this endowment, however, seems small in comparison to some American universities, for example Princeton, which has an endowment of $15.8 million. In an interview with Palatinate’s Daniel Bloom, Vice Chancellor Christopher Higgins said, “American universities have a massive endowment. It’s going to take us a long, long time to get there, but we can begin. What we would like to do as a university is raise sufficient money from various sources… so that we can provide scholarships. That’s what American universities do.”

The University is also heavily involved in fundraising, and is one of the most successful in the country. The money raised annually by the University Development Office, around £4 million, has been used in projects such as the refurbishment of the Assembly Rooms, and to build new teaching and research buildings, for example the Centre for Islamic Studies and the Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics.