The University of Oxford is to issue its first ever bond in an effort to raise £250 million ($332 million, 279 million euros) on financial markets, it said on Tuesday. It is the latest British university to do so as the higher education sector comes under pressure from government cuts and seeks to benefit from very low interest rates.
Oxford "has appointed JP Morgan to hold a series of investor meetings while it considers a possible debut offer to the bond market", a spokesman said, confirming the amount. Other UK higher education establishments have sought to diversify their finance base with bond offerings in recent years - the universities of Cardiff, Cambridge, Liverpool and Manchester all figured on a Bank of England list of bonds eligible for purchase in April of this year.