Prestigious Cambridge University is considering a bond issue worth up to 300 million pounds, the first in its history and in line with top US Ivy League institutions, its finance director said Monday.
Andrew Reid said such an issue from the 800-year-old institution would be the biggest yet from a British university and would be used for major building projects in Cambridge.
Expected to be between 200-300 million pounds, the long-term borrowing would keep the university "in the forefront of academic and scientific excellence," he said.
"We do have some major building programmes to undertake," Reid told AFP.
"It is quite a lot of money; it may just not be right for straightforward bank borrowing. A bond issue might be the more appropriate way of doing it."
A final decision on the bond issue would come this year and perhaps in the next six months, Reid added.
Cambridge's board of scrutiny, which ensures the university is run efficiently, strongly recommended borrowing via bonds in a report at the end of November, he said, confirming a report in the Wall Street Journal.
The money would be used to finance two main projects, in the northwest and centre of Cambridge.
The northwest development would include a lot of residential housing used for the university's junior staff and work in central Cambridge would focus on improving academic facilities, the director said.
Issuing bonds would see Cambridge take the same approach to borrowing as top US institutions, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Harvard University, Princeton University, Yale and Stanford have all sought financing through bonds, the newspaper said.
Copyright 2010 AFP European Edition
