Professor Sir Nigel Thrift has made a lifetime pledge to donate at least £50,000 to the University of Warwick for the benefit of global student volunteering.

During his period as Vice-Chancellor, Sir Nigel has demonstrated a strong commitment to philanthropy for the University, spearheading the 50 Forward £50 million Development Campaign – which has been the largest fundraising campaign in the University’s history. By the end of the campaign in 2015 nearly £75 million was raised to fund scholarships, research, capital and outreach activities. Nigel and his wife Lynda were also instrumental in establishing the Laksh programme in India and have seen the huge benefits of such volunteering schemes both to the Warwick students taking part and to school children living within impoverished communities overseas.

Sir Nigel commented:

I am pleased to be able to play a small part in connecting our hugely talented students with under-privileged children living under extremely challenging circumstances. Programmes such as Warwick in Africa and Warwick in India provide important development opportunities for our students and are nothing less than transformational to the lives of both teachers and pupils in some parts of Africa and India.”

As he leaves Warwick it has just been announced that Sir Nigel will take up the position of Executive Director of the Schwarzman Scholars, a new prestigious Master’s degree program at Tsinghua University in Beijing, designed to educate future leaders about China. Read the full announcement on the Schwarzman Scholars website.