British billionaire to donate £190m to Cambridge University

Billionaire hedge fund owner Chris Rokos is to donate £190m to the University of Cambridge.

The university said this will be "the largest single donation made to a British university in modern times".

The money will be used to create a school of government in Cambridge named after him, with the aim of training leaders of the future.

Rokos said he wanted to "give something back" to the UK with the donation.

Rokos will provide an initial £130m in funding to the university, plus an extra £60m that will be matched by the university to create what will be known as the Rokos School of Government.

Rokos is a 55-year-old British investor and philanthropist who lives in the UK and founded global multi-asset investment fund Rokos Capital Management.

According to The Sunday Times Rich List, he is worth an estimated £2.6bn. He is also one of the UK's biggest tax payers, according to the paper's annual tax list.

He won a scholarship to Eton College after attending a state primary school, and studied mathematics at Pembroke College, Oxford. He previously provided financial support for scholarships at Eton and initiatives linked to Pembroke College.

Speaking about his donation, Rokos said: "I was fortunate to be given the opportunity of an education which transformed my life, and I would like to give something back to Britain. My hope is that, in time, the influence of the Rokos School of Government across the world becomes an important element of that soft power which has been a great asset to the UK."

He said the discussions to create this new institution began several years ago, with Dr Elisabeth Kendall, who is the President of Girton College, and was friends with Rokos when they were undergraduates together in Oxford.

He said detailed conversations between them led to a shared recognition of the need to prepare leaders of the future to be able to face new challenges.

"It was becoming clear that the world was changing in new and different ways, and that the processes of government needed to adapt accordingly. For me, there can be no better home for the Rokos School of Government than Cambridge University with its long tradition of scientific innovation and synergistic culture", he added.

The new Rokos School of Government is to be built on undeveloped land in the Cambridge West Innovation District, close to the university's science and technology departments.

It is due to begin operations from this autumn, using temporary facilities initially, before a new building is designed and completed.

It will take on PhD and Masters students, as well as establishing a faculty including political scientists, economists and statisticians, as well as experts from the world of business and government.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Prof Deborah Prentice, welcomed the donation.

"Thanks to Chris' generous support, the Rokos School of Government will become a place where leaders and governments - both current and future - together with experts from across our institution generate the insights and solutions needed to respond to our rapidly changing world", she said.

The previous largest donation to a university was in 2019, when American billionaire Stephen Schwarzman donated £185m to Oxford University. That was used to create the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities.

The Times Higher Education website claimed recently that philanthropy to elite UK universities is in decline. It found donations to Russell Group institutions had peaked at just over £650m in 2023-24, and since declined to around £546m last year.