News

Durham University to offer scholarships with Iraqi exile’s £1 million thank-you

(3 December 2004)

Applicants to Durham University will be among 1,000 of the country’s most promising students taking up places at the prestigious 1994 Group of universities in 2005-2006 with the help of scholarships from a £1 million donation by a former Iraqi refugee.

Naim Dangoor, an Iraqi Jewish businessman, escaped anti-Semitic persecution when the Baath Party (later headed by Saddam Hussein) came to power in Iraqin the 1960s. He fled to England, where he had studied engineering decades earlier, and built his property empire in exile.

Now he wants to thank the country that gave him refuge by setting up a scholarship scheme for one thousand of the most talented students from England and Wales.

The 1,000 Dangoor scholarships of £1,000 each will be available to students starting their courses in 2005 at the 1994 Group of leading research universities, which includes Durham. It is expected that each of the 16 universities will offer between 40 and 80 scholarships.

Naim Dangoor, 90, says: “I promised myself that if I was ever able to help a British university student I would, to assist the native people of the country that welcomed me. But I never dreamt I would be able to make such a big contribution.” Mr Dangoor had made a similar promise to himself some 70 years earlier, when he was an undergraduate at the University of London.

Professor Sir Kenneth Calman, Vice-Chancellor of Durham, said: “We look forward to being able to play our part in creating the opportunities that this tremendous donation makes possible. We aim to attract talented students from any background, and the benefit of such scholarships will make a great difference for many applicants.”

The scholarships were launched formally at gathering hosted by the University of Sussex, whose vice-chancellor currently chairs the 1994 Group, and attended by the Dangoor family, the Minister for Higher Education Kim Howells, senior officers from a range of higher education bodies and the Vice-Chancellors of the 1994 Group.

The 1994 Group universities are: Bath; Birkbeck College, London; Durham; East Anglia; Essex; Exeter; Goldsmiths College, London; Lancaster; London School of Economics; Reading; Royal Holloway, London; St Andrews; Surrey; Sussex; Warwick; York. See alsowww.dangoor.com