The University of Cambridge received donations and endowments worth £150 million in 2023-24, the second highest amount of all British universities.

Cambridge received over three times that of LSE which came in third place, according to Times Higher Education.

Together with Oxford, who came first with £227 million in donations, Cambridge raised 48% of total donations to the university sector, an increase from 41% last year.

But, this increase masked an overall drop in the amount raised by non-Oxbridge universities, whose takings of £415 million marked the lowest ebb since 2021.

With the exception of London Business School, the other universities making up the top ten were all members of the Russell Group of elite British universities, raising concerns that donations are exacerbating the growing financial gap in the university system.

Nik Miller, a partner at More Partnership, a consultancy firm which seeks to help educational, cultural, and charitable organisations to increase their fundraising income, said that it was important that all universities “benefit from this rising tide,” rather than allowing it to worsen divides.

The amount received in donations correlates with the number of fundraising staff employed at a given institution, and represents up to 10% of annual turnover at the highest-performing institutions. However, differences in the way donations are accounted for makes the true situation difficult to gauge.

According to Joanna Motion, associate partner at More Partnership, different universities treat donations as “apples and oranges and avocados,” with some counting STEM-related philanthropy as research rather than donations or endowments.

The figures for donations received by Oxford and Cambridge are for the central universities only, and do not include the often-substantial donations received by individual colleges. Including these figures would most likely significantly increase the two universities’ share of donations received, leaving other institutions trailing further behind.

Last year, over 120 influential academics, campaigners, and politicians signed an open letter calling Cambridge University, among other top UK institutions, to name its donors following concerns over transparency.

The letter was addressed after an investigation by OpenDemocracy found that more than £281 million of anonymous donations had been made to Russell Group universities since 2017.