The University of Cambridge will establish a new Rokos School of Government, following a £190 million donation from billionaire investor Chris Rokos.

The Rokos School will begin operations at a temporary site in autumn 2026 until the new facilities are completed.

The donation is the biggest given to a British university in modern history, surpassing Stephen Schwarzman’s £175 million gift to the University of Oxford.

It comprises an initial donation of £130 million, with Rokos having agreed to provide further funds of up to £60 million. The University has pledged to match the subsequent funding.

The funds will be overseen by a four-person trust, with two people nominated by the University and two by Rokos, respectively. The University has appointed pro vice-chancellors Professor Kamal Munir, a member of the Judge Business School and fellow of Homerton College, and Professor Sir John Aston, who is currently serving as the Harding Professor of Statistics in Public Life. Rokos has nominated lawyer and Cambridge alum Dr Christos Nifadopaulos, along with the Mistress of Girton, Dr Elisabeth Kendall, who he studied with at the University of Oxford.

The new School of Government is set to be built on undeveloped land in the Cambridge West Innovation District, which was established to “connect industry with academic expertise”.

The School aims to bring together technology, science, the social sciences, and the arts and humanities. Its faculty will include political scientists, economists, historians, engineers and statisticians, alongside government and industry experts. The Rokos School will also offer PhD and Master’s degrees.

In a statement, Rokos said: “I was fortunate to be given the opportunity of an education which transformed my life, and I would like to give something back to Britain”.

Rokos added that he hopes the school’s influence “becomes an important element of that soft power which has been a great asset to the UK”.

Cambridge vice-chancellor Deborah Prentice praised the donation, stating that “tackling the enormous challenges facing our world requires radical new ways of thinking and approaches to leadership. Cambridge, with its strengths across all disciplines and its convening power, is uniquely positioned to drive this innovation”.

She added: “Thanks to Chris’ generous support, the Rokos School of Government will become a place where leaders and governments – both current and future – together with experts from across our institution generate the insights and solutions needed to respond to our rapidly changing world”.

Rokos, a hedge fund manager, attended Eton on a scholarship before graduating with a First in mathematics from Pembroke College, Oxford.

The billionaire has previously worked at companies including UBS and Goldman Sachs, and founded the hedge fund Rokos Capital Management in 2015. Rokos reportedly paid himself £477 million last year.

Rokos has also donated to organisations such as Amnesty International, and funds a number of academic scholarships at the University of Oxford and Eton College.

Rokos gave the Conservative Party approximately £2 million between 2009 and 2015, though he has not donated to the party since 2018.