£12.5m gift to Oxford and Cambridge aims to bridge STEM gap for disadvantaged students

Oxford and Cambridge universities have each received a £6.25m donation from an anonymous benefactor to expand outreach and support for disadvantaged students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The £12.5m joint gift will fund new and existing initiatives aimed at raising attainment, improving access and increasing the number of underrepresented students progressing into STEM degrees.

Although administered separately, the programmes at the two universities will share resources, online platforms and academic tutors to maximise their combined impact. The goal is to build a joined-up support system for students aged 14 through to university, tackling persistent gaps in opportunity and achievement.

At Oxford, the funding will allow the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division to launch a targeted GCSE mathematics mentoring programme, designed to support students from low socio-economic backgrounds. Participants will receive weekly tutorials and attend residential sessions at Oxford, with the aim of boosting confidence and take-up of maths and further maths at A-level. The programme will support approximately 850 students over four years.

The gift will also expand Oxford’s online COMPOS outreach programme, which helps 14–19-year-olds develop deeper skills in physics and maths. The platform, running since 2021, will now increase capacity from 500 to 1,200 students annually and broaden its subject offering to include chemistry, biology, computer science and pure mathematics. In addition, Oxford’s bridging programme for incoming undergraduates will be scaled up, with more places on its residential week and extended online academic preparation throughout the transition into university life.

Cambridge will use its share of the donation to secure two major STEM access initiatives through to 2031. Isaac Physics, a free online learning platform developed by Cambridge academics, allows teachers to assign structured problem sets across physics, maths, chemistry and biology. It is currently used by more than 700,000 students and educators worldwide.

STEM SMART, which builds on Isaac Physics, supplements weekly assignments with live tutorials and mentoring by university students. The most engaged pupils are invited to attend a four-day residential at a Cambridge college. Independent evaluations have found the programme significantly boosts A-level performance and university admissions among disadvantaged students.

Leaders at both universities have hailed the gift as a transformational opportunity to reach more students and build a stronger, more inclusive pipeline into STEM. By combining high-quality resources with targeted mentoring and immersive experiences, the initiatives aim to unlock potential and address the structural barriers that still limit access to science and technology careers.

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