Hedgefund owner gives huge donation to Harvard

Here in The Netherlands, universities have to solve their money problems by making budget cuts. The American top university Harvard started a campaign to collect money in 2013 and has recently received an enormous donation. John A. Paulson, who owns a hedgefund, donated 400 million dollars.Paulson graduated from Harvard in 1980. After that, he started his company Paulson & Co. He is known for foreseeing the financial crisis and therefore, through smart investments, making 3.7 billion dollars. Because he feels like he has an excellent education at Harvard, he makes this big investment.

Harvard wants to collect 6.5 billion dollars with this campaign. So far, it already yielded 5 billion dollars. The university is one of the richest in the world. To thank Paulson for the donation, the technical faculty will soon be named Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The money will be used for this faculty.

Not everybody is happy with mr. Paulson’s donation. News site Quartz writes: “For what it’s worth, Harvard doesn’t really need the money. Its endowment stood at more than $36 billion as of June 2014, making it the largest such endowment in the country. And yet Harvard and other members of the university fundraising super-elite keep attracting a bigger and bigger share of the largesse earmarked for higher education.” New Yorker journalist Malcolm Gladwell sent out some furious tweets about the matter: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The online magazine Slate goes a little further and wrote a blog under the name ‘Billionaire’s ego donates 400 million to Harvard’.

Bekijk meer recent nieuws

Schrijf je in voor onze nieuwsbrief

Blijf op de hoogte. Meld je aan voor de nieuwsbrief van Univers.