Disadvantaged children STEM boost from £6.5m donation

The University of Oxford said it will use the money to fund STEM outreach projects

An anonymous donation of £6.5m has been made to to help socio-economically disadvantaged children's education.

The money will be used to expand Oxford University's outreach work with students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects, the institution said.

The donor has also made a gift to the University of Cambridge, to support projects aimed at increasing participation and attainment in STEM subjects.

Professor James Naismith, head of the mathematical, physical and life sciences at Oxford, said the "generous" gift would help the university "support the next generation of scientists, mathematicians and engineers".

A donation was also made to the University of Cambridge

The money will be used to fund three outreach projects taking place at the university from October 2025.

The first is a targeted GCSE maths mentoring programme, designed to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds by giving them weekly maths tutorials.

About 850 students will benefit from it in the first four years, the university said.

The second project is an expansion of an online outreach programme for 14-19 year olds to help them develop physics and maths skills.

The programme has been running sine 2021, but the university said the donation would expand it from 500 participating students per year to 1,200.

The money will also support the bridging programme, an initiative for students during the period between receiving an offer and completing their first year as an undergraduate.

At Cambridge, the money will fund two programmes that are also designed to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds succeed in STEM.

Whilst the two universities will run the programmes separately, they will share resources and materials, Oxford University said.