Oxford college to be named after airline billionairess... as she hands it £155m
Linacre will now be known as Thao College
AN OXFORD University college is to be renamed after a Vietnamese billionairess whose company is donating it £155million.
Linacre College will become Thao College following the gift by Madam Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, who made her money through budget airlines.
The college was founded in 1962 and named after Thomas Linacre, a renowned 15th century English scholar, humanist and physician. He counted Utopia author Sir Thomas More and Cardinal Wolsey, chief adviser to Henry VIII, among his patients.
Linacre also created the Royal College of Physicians in a bid to raise standards and prevent quack doctors from operating.
But officials at the college, which is for graduates, have now announced it will be renamed in favour of Madam Thao, who is Vietnam’s first self-made female billionaire.
The donation from Sovico, of which she is majority shareholder and chairman, is one of the largest given to an Oxford college.
The company is a founder of VietJet Air, Vietnam’s first private airline, and of HDBank, one of the nation’s biggest banks.
In a statement, the college said: ‘We have long been one of the least well-endowed colleges at the university, so we are delighted that a significant part of the donation will be for our general endowment fund, to help support the daily running of [the] college.’
Officials said the money would pay for a new graduate centre and for graduate access scholarships.
Madam Thao, 51, told the Daily Telegraph: ‘I believe that Oxford is the right place to make my long-time desire to contribute to humanity through education, training and research come true. By donating to Linacre College, we hope to make significant contributions to enrich Oxford’s traditions and reputation.’
But the announcement was criticised by some academics last night.
Dr Marie Kawthar Daouda, a lecturer in French literature at Oxford, said college names had ‘deep history’ and should not be altered simply because ‘a major gift has been made’.
The college originally took Linacre’s name to commemorate him as ‘an outstanding Renaissance figure’ and ‘one of the great scholars of his time’. Dr Daouda continued: ‘Thankfulness for Madam Thao’s money could be expressed in ways that do not erase what the donation is meant to protect.’
Patrick Major, a history professor at Reading University, said: ‘I personally would have some reservations about the commercialisation of this.
‘I’m more familiar with a single building within an institution being named after benefactors but not whole colleges. There are some examples in the US, but I think it is fairly alien to the British experience. I think rather than buildings being named after people in the commercial or business sector I would rather see things done for people in public life.’
Madam Thao was born in 1970 and became a billionaire aged 21 while at university in Moscow, where she began importing goods.
In 2018 her VietJet airline became immersed in scandal when bikiniclad models were paraded through a plane that was carrying the under-23 national football team.
The college is not the first to change its name following a large donation.
Oxford’s Harris Manchester college changed its name from Manchester College in 1996 following a donation from businessman Baron Harris.
And Cambridge’s Murray Edwards College changed its name in 2008 to honour benefactor Ros Edwards and its first president Dame Rosemary Murray.
‘Desire to contribute to humanity’