Millions donated to Cardiff University by unknown backers

An unnamed individual gave a quarter of a million pounds

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In the last two years gifts and donations to Cardiff University have totalled £3.7million.

The largest private donation came from an individual from the United Arab Emirates, fetching £222,378.

In August 2013, another unknown donor from the Middle East gave £221,886 – it was the largest individual gift Cardiff received that year.

Donations to the university were worth £3.7m in two years

Other generous gift donations came from as far as Australia, Hong Kong and Nigeria.

A spokesperson for Cardiff University said: “Money donated to Cardiff University is spent on students through scholarships and bursaries.

“It is also spent on teaching and research facilities, and specific research activities.

“As a registered charity, we actively seek donations.

“Donations to Cardiff University offer financial support to students and fund our world-leading research.

“We actively celebrate our donors and the positive impact their financial support has on Welsh students.

“They make an enormous and positive difference to students and research, often in areas where funding is traditionally challenging to source.

“We still have a long way to go before reaching the levels of donations of other leading UK universities or most other universities in the world.”

Donations came from United Arabic Emirates, Australia, Hong Kong and Nigeria

However, Cardiff Met’s donations were considerably smaller.

Their highest individual gift donation being worth £1,000 in 2014/15 and their top donation from an institution being worth £144,200.

A spokesperson for Cardiff Met said: “Donations made to Cardiff Met are likely to be smaller than those made to Cardiff University as we are a smaller institution.

“Cardiff University is a member of the Russell Group of universities with a different focus of academic programmes and research.

“It is therefore difficult to make a fair comparison of two very different institutions.”