Ministers may need to block universities from accepting "tainted and dirty" donations in the wake of a row over Oxford colleges taking funding from the family of Max Mosley, a leading don has said.
Professor Lawrence Goldman, an emeritus fellow in history at St Peter's College, Oxford, yesterday called for more regulation of university funding to avoid institutions paying for their projects with money from morally questionable sources.
The don said it was inappropriate for institutions to take money from a Mosley family trust, when the original fortune was donated by Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists.
Whitehall sources yesterday suggested the Government was unlikely to accept the plans because ministers felt universities should make their own decisions about their funding sources, but stressed that senior figures were concerned about dubious donations and called on institutions to do more to vet them.
St Peter’s College and Lady Margaret Hall, the two Oxford colleges that accepted a total of more than ￡6.3 million from the Alexander Mosley Charitable Trust, insisted the donations went through a “robust” review process.
But while ministers were shocked by the university’s decision to accept money from the Mosley family, they do not believe it is the Government’s duty to intervene.
'Universities should consider ethical and reputational risks'
Michelle Donelan, the universities minister, last night said: “When accepting donations, universities should consider ethical and reputational risks, and the views of any relevant student and staff communities.
“This should not be a barrier to working with legitimate charitable organisations that are able to provide funds to support academic research and a high-quality student experience.”
But a Whitehall source added that a new regulator to assess donations was “not on the cards”.
“There is a responsibility on universities to get this right, but it is a decision for them to make,” the source said.
But Prof Goldman suggested that Oxford and its colleges had shown they could not be trusted to vet their own donations.
“I believe these universities should largely be self-governing, but if they can't govern themselves effectively, and according to the moral principles that I think most British people would expect of great universities, then there may be a role for the state,” he told Sky News.
He added: "Oxford has lots of money and can continue to get money from other sources, it does all the time, and I don't really buy the argument that because you can do some good in Oxford, you should just continue to hold on to what is essentially tainted and dirty money."
The row comes after The Telegraph revealed on Friday that Oxford University’s central body had also accepted ￡6 million from the trust that it intended to use to fund a physics building named after Max Mosley’s son, Alexander.
Following the intervention of another donor, plans to use the Mosley family name on the building were scrapped.
'Wokeness goes out the window' when wealthy donors offer money
Robert Halfon, the Tory chair of the education select committee, said the donations were “distressing,” and suggested that “wokeness goes out the window” at the university when wealthy donors offered their money.
“I suspect students will be asking for the money to be returned,” he said.
Yesterday Prof Goldman said the money should only be accepted by Oxford if Mr Mosley, who died in May, had first apologised for his support for the BUF in the 1950s and 60s.
“What should have happened was that long ago Max Mosley should have apologised for his actions,” he said.
“He should have ‘fessed up to what he has done and then he should have used that money very productively to assist those who were, as it were, on the receiving end - victims of that fascist violence.
"Then, also if you wish to, he could have supported colleges in Oxford in the university."