Reuben brothers funding new Oxford college

David and Simon Reuben, 81 and 78 years old respectively, were born into the Baghdadi Jewish community in Mumbai and arrived in the UK in the 1950s with their mother, Nancy.

The businessmen made their fortunes in the mining and commodities businesses during the 1990s. Simon had begun his career in the carpet trade, while David had joined a scrap metal business.

Today, the bulk of the Reubens’ business activities is in real estate and venture capital and, according to the Sunday Times’ Rich List, the Reuben brothers have assets totalling over £16 billion – making them the second wealthiest men in Britain.

The Reuben Foundation, created in 2002, is a philanthropic vehicle which specialises in healthcare and education and was the driver behind the creation of the Nancy Reuben Primary School, an independent Jewish day school in Finchley that was named after the brothers’ mother.  

Louise Richardson, the vice-chancellor of Oxford University, told Times Higher Education that Oxford had found 29 scholars from 15 departments who would teach at the college and that there were no plans to hire new academics for Reuben College.  

Ms Richardson rejected suggestions that the timing, amid the coronavirus pandemic, was ill-thought out.

“The timing was fantastic,” she said. “We expect that this year we are going to take a hit and get fewer graduate student applicants than we normally would. So, we think next year there’s going to be huge pent-up demand, so we’re delighted that we’re going to have Reuben College to address that.”

There had been concern at Oxford that as Reuben College will be run by Oxford University itself, and not an autonomous entity most other colleges, that its creation amounts to a power-grab by the university.

Ms Richardson accepted that the college was not “100 per cent independent,” however she rejected that this would curtail the independence of the college.

“This makes no tangible difference in so far as they all have governing bodies, they all have independence, but they do have financial backing of the university if things go wrong,” she said.