The University of Oxford has announced an £80 million ($101 million) gift from the Reuben Foundation to endow its newest graduate college and fund a scholarship program for graduate students. 

Established last year as the university's thirty-ninth college — the first in thirty years — and scheduled to open in the fall of 2021, Reuben College will serve as a base for graduate students engaged in interdisciplinary research focused on addressing global challenges, including ongoing research on COVID-19, environmental change, and artificial intelligence, and will work to foster a culture of innovation and enterprise and a strong commitment to diversity, sustainability, and public engagement across all its activities.

The gift also will fund a new graduate scholarship program and fund an expansion of the foundation's Reuben Scholarship Programme, which was established in 2012 to help disadvantaged undergrads.

The foundation previously had made significant donations of healthcare equipment to Oxford University Hospitals as well as other hospitals in the United Kingdom and elsewhere that are treating COVID-19 patients. 

"The current pandemic has shown us just how vital it is to have access to the very best medical research and academic thinking," the foundation said in a statement. "Fortunately, in the UK we have some of the finest minds in the world working in some of the most preeminent 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."

(Photo credit: Alison Stibbe)