Money where your mouth is

Nice to see some people value education - I mean really, really value education.

Cambridge colleges do like their alumni. They're not, on average, as generous as Ivy League alumni are in the US, but they do tend to supply a fair chunk of money. New Hall College, part of the University of Cambridge, are particularly delighted with one of their old girls, though. Ros Smith, after graduating, began working with an IT consultant called Steve Edwards. They later married and set up a company that is now a world leader in telecom billings systems, Geneva Technology. Smart people. They sold out in 2001 (see what I mean by smart people?) and although their shares, assuming they held onto them, will have taken a dive since, the Times estimated their net wealth as 70 million pounds.

Well, make that 40 million. They've just given 30 million pounds to Ros' old college. As "New Hall" was the name of the college while it waited for a donor, this is a big enough gift to rename the college. In this case Murray Edwards College - Murray being the late Dame Rosemary Murray, who originally founded the college in the 1950s.