Targeted donations could level the playing field for universities beyond the elite | Letters

Terence Kealey and Prof Amanda Broderick on financial pressures and philanthropy

Your editorial on fixing the universities’ problems notes that a handful of elite institutions rake in most of the philanthropic donations (The Guardian view on Cambridge’s £190m gift: billionaires won’t fix universities’ problems, 6 April). You imply a Matthew effect: “For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance” (Matthew 25:29).

Yet perhaps we’re actually seeing a governance effect, as there is a small number of universities that are not governed conventionally by councils of lay, external, non-executive trustees. This handful includes Oxford and Cambridge. These institutions are governed unconventionally by their staff and alumni, and they are disproportionately successful at fundraising.