Cambridge University has received an “extraordinary” £100 million donation from a charity co-founded by one of its graduates.
The David and Claudia Harding Foundation has made the largest ever donation to a university in the UK. David Harding, a billionaire hedge fund boss, attended Cambridge’s St Catharine’s College as a student.
The university said husband and wife Mr and Mrs Harding’s gift will “transform the lives of students, providing them with opportunities they could only dream of”.
Vice-chancellor Prof Stephen Toope said the money will enable some students to “make discoveries that will change the world”.
Mr Harding said: “Claudia and I are very happy to make this gift to Cambridge to help to attract future generations of the world’s outstanding students to research and study there.
“Cambridge and other British centres of learning have down the ages contributed greatly to improvements in the human condition and can continue in future to address humanity’s great challenges.”
The donation will be a split between £79m for PhD scholarships and £21m to support undergraduate students.
Mr Harding founded Winton, a global investment management company, in 1997. Mrs Harding is the managing trustee of the charitable foundation.
