London: India-born Reuben brothers, who are among the richest businessmen in Britain, have recently donated 80 million pounds to Oxford University. This will help in establishing a major new scholarship programme for graduate and undergraduate students. The students will attend Oxford University’s newest college, the educational institution said Thursday.
David and Simon Reuben have recently been ranked the UK’s second-richest billionaires with a fortune of 16 billion pounds. They featured in the ‘The Sunday Times’ annual rich list. They made the ‘transformational gift’ to Park College established by Oxford University last year.
The university said that in recognition of the ‘historic gift’ from the Reuben Foundation, the college will now be called ‘Reuben College’.
“The current pandemic has shown us just how vital it is to have access to the very best medical research and academic thinking. We are just trying to help out,” the Reuben family said in a statement.
“Fortunately, in the UK we have some of the finest minds in the world. They are working in some of the most pre-eminent academic institutions. We hope that this endowment for the Reuben College will help keep Oxford University at the global forefront of research. In the process the university will thereby help to improve the lives of millions of people long into the future,” they said.
Due to welcome its first students in the autumn of 2021, Reuben College says it has already attracted an outstanding line-up of academic Fellows. The university’s 39th college – the first for 30 years – was created as a new base for graduate students who are eager to embrace opportunities for interdisciplinary exchange and apply their research to address key future challenges.
The college says it aims to generate new insights into the biggest questions of our time by bringing academics from traditionally different disciplines together to work on challenging themes and share their knowledge with the college’s graduate students. The initial research themes are: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning; Environmental Change; and Cellular Life, which includes ongoing work in understanding Covid-19 and the current pandemic.
“Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of the Reuben family, Reuben College will join the storied ranks of Oxford Colleges,” said Professor Louise Richardson, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford.
“Now, more than ever, our society needs a new generation of highly educated researchers to address the global challenges that transcend national borders. This gift represents a vote of confidence in Oxford, a vote of confidence in the power of research to solve societal problems, and above all, a vote of confidence in the future,” she added.