Hit them for Sachs! Cash strapped Exeter gifted one million pounds by city firm

Chicken feed for Goldman is big bucks for boycotted College


Exeter College has received a donation of £1.1 million by investment bank Goldman Sachs.  The bank, which has donated to Balliol and Christ Church in recent years, donated the money through their completely non-ironic ‘Goldman Sachs Gives’ charity arm.

According to statements filed last week, Goldman donated the money to a fund which provides needs based scholarships to students entering the college from underprivileged backgrounds.

Goldman employees last week

Exeter JCR is currently locked in a standoff with the College authorities over a proposed rise in their ‘obligatory‘ hall charge, which already sits above the £500 mark.  The charge was introduced after the College claimed it was no longer in a financial situation to subsidise losses at hall.  

Last week, Exeter JCR President Richard Collett-White told The Tab that the cost of hall undermines their access efforts: ‘We pay an £840 Catering Charge annually and yet more for each meal, making us the most expensive undergraduate college. This undermines our Access efforts and affordability.’

This donation will presumably aid with access efforts, though mandatory fees tend to undermine any progress.

Outside Exeter this morning

Goldman gave away £86 million in the last year, £500,000 of which was to subsidise bursaries to Eton College.  They employ 32,000 people worldwide and had an annual revenue in 2013 of over $32 billion.