Britain’s top universities stand accused of doing all in their power to keep the identities of their wealthy corporate and overseas benefactors secret.
A report by the investigative news website openDemocracy revealed that Russell Group universities received more than £281 million in donations in the past five years.
That includes £139 million from Chinese sources, including large sums from Huawei, which has been banned from the UK’s 5G network over security concerns.
The University of Oxford alone accepted more than £106 million from funders who wanted to keep their names out of the public domain.
One £10 million donation was “facilitated” by the president of Azerbaijan’s sister-in-law, according to openDemocracy.
