Oxford's Linacre College gets go-ahead to accept £155m gift

The college's name change, which will take effect once the college has received £50m, will honour Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao

An Oxford University college can accept a proposed £155m donation from a Vietnamese conglomerate after the government closed an investigation.

Linacre College plans to change its name to Thao College after the SOVICO Group's chairwoman following its first gift of £50m.

Ex-education minister Michelle Donelan told the Commons in June she was "actively investigating" the donation.

But the graduate college has now been told it was free to accept the money.

A Department for Education spokesperson said officials had been reassured by the college's due diligence carried out before it signed a memorandum of understanding with the SOVICO Group in October.

The company is a founder of Vietjet Air, Vietnam's first private airline, and HDBank, one of the country's biggest banks.

The graduate college was founded in 1962 and named after the 16th Century humanist scholar Thomas Linacre

The college's proposed name change - which will need to be approved by the Privy Council - will be made in honour of SOVICO Group's chairwoman, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao.

Last November, Ms Donelan - who was recently briefly education secretary - said universities should consider "ethical and reputational risks and the views of any relevant student and staff communities" before accepting controversial donations.

Linacre College was founded in 1962 and is named after the Renaissance humanist, medical scientist and classicist Thomas Linacre.

The "transformative" donation will help to pay for a new graduate centre and graduate access scholarships, the college said previously.