The gift by Michael Moritz, a billionaire who made his fortune at Sequoia Capital ¨C which invested early in Google, Yahoo and PayPal ¨C is the largest donation towards undergraduate financial support made in European university history.

It will be used to help fund a targeted package of support ¨C worth ?11,000 a year per recipient ¨C for students from families earning under ?16,000 a year.

Half will be awarded as a bursary, with the remaining ?5,500 used as a waiver on Oxford¡¯s ?9,000 tuition fee.

About 100 students will receive the scholarship in 2012-13, but Oxford wants ultimately to extend the scheme to all its students from the lowest-income band.

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The university hopes that Mr Moritz¡¯s commitment will help secure further donations in a bid to raise a total of ?300 million for the scheme.

His gift will be released in three tranches, with each ?25 million contribution triggered once a further ?50 million has been raised from other donations. Oxford has also pledged to release ?75 million from its endowment fund for the project.

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Mr Moritz, a Cardiff-born Oxford graduate who moved to California in the 1970s, said: ¡°This is a fresh approach to student funding in the UK ¨C fuelled by philanthropy, catering to the dreams and aspirations of individuals determined to excel, while also safeguarding the academic excellence on which Oxford¡¯s global reputation stands.¡±

The venture capitalist, whose wealth is estimated at $1.8 billion by Forbes, announced in May that he was stepping down from Sequoia¡¯s day-to-day management because he had been diagnosed with a rare, incurable disease.

jack.grove@tsleducation.com