By Reuben Foundation donates £80 million for first new Oxford college in 30 years.
Oxford University has announced that they have received a landmark £80m donation from the Reuben Foundation.
The Reuben Foundation has recently made significant donations of healthcare equipment for Oxford University Hospitals (as well as other hospitals in the UK and elsewhere) treating patients with COVID-19.
This most recent donation will transform Oxford’s ‘Parks College’ and establish a major new scholarship programme for graduate and undergraduate students.
Pending approval by the University’s legislative body, Congregation, the college will be renamed Reuben College, in recognition of the historic founding gift by the Reuben Foundation and will welcome its first students in the autumn of 2021.
Professor Louise Richardson, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, said:
“Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of the Reuben family, Reuben College will join the storied ranks of Oxford Colleges. For generations to come, the lives of young people will be transformed as they learn to engage in research that pushes at the frontiers of knowledge.”
Reuben College aims to generate new insights into the biggest questions of our time by bringing academics together from traditionally different disciplines to work on challenging themes and share their knowledge with the college’s graduate students.
The college’s initial research themes are:
- Artificial Intelligence and machine learning;
- Cellular life; and
- Environmental change.
College Fellows in the AI & Machine Learning and Cellular Life themes include researchers working on improving our understanding and treatment of COVID-19, including vaccine development, patient monitoring and disease forecasting.
The Reuben family have provided the following statement regarding their donation:
“The current pandemic has shown us just how vital it is to have access to the very best medical research and academic thinking. Fortunately, in the UK we have some of the finest minds in the world 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 vital areas of Environmental Change, AI and Machine Learning and Cellular Life, thereby helping to improve the lives of millions of people long into the future.”
Located in a suite of buildings on the historic Radcliffe Science Library site, Reuben College will be located in the heart of the University’s Science Area.
On completion in 2021, Reuben College will offer accessible and modern facilities, with flexible spaces for quiet study, group meetings, seminars and workshops, public events and social occasions.
Contact Gi Oxford
Email us: news@gi-media.co.uk
Follows us on Facebook for all the latest local stories, breaking news and to join the conversation
