In Education: U.K. Universities See Rise in Alumni Giving

Donations to British universities increased 8.5 percent, to $890-million, last year, boosted by new efforts to encourage schools to engage with alumni, the Financial Times writes. The annual Ross-Case report on higher-education philanthropy in Britain found that 204,000 people gave to 150 institutions that were surveyed in the 2010-11 fiscal year, a 10 percent rise from the previous year.
The study credited a three-year, $320-million “matched funding scheme” aimed at promoting alumni relations as a contributing factor in the income gain. Schools that took part in the program backed by the Higher Education Funding Council of England, a public body, boosted donations by 130 percent. The elite universities of Oxford and Cambridge continued to dominate the sector, taking in 44 percent of 2010-11 donations. In other education news, a Rice University alumni has contributed $25-million toward the Houston school’s planned social-sciences building, the Houston Chronicle reports. Read more...