HULL CITY owner Assem Allam has donated £7m for Hull York Medical School to build a new HQ in Hull
Mr Allam's donation was revealed as part of the annual Sunday Times Giving List - details of which are published for the first time today.
It shows a record sum of just under £2.4bn has been given to charity by 285 of those featured in the forthcoming Sunday Times Rich List, which will be published later this month.
Mr Allam runs Melton-based Allam Marine, a manufacturer and supplier of industrial and marine generators, and is worth £320m according to the forthcoming Sunday Times Rich List.
The businessman said the desire of many on the Giving List is to give something back to the region where they made their fortune.
He said: "We businesmen, none of us have a machine to print money.
"We make our money from our communities and there is a time to payback.
"I want to try to inspire other business people to do the same - to feel they have a duty to pay back."
Hull York Medical School opened in 2003 and is a partnership between the universities of Hull and York.
Students can opt to study in either city with clinical training placements, half of which are in primary care, taking place in Hull, York, Scarborough, Scunthorpe and Grimsby.
The school, one of the smaller ones in Britain, accepts about 140 students a year to study medicine with about nine applications per place.
University of Hull vice-chancellor Professor Calie Pistorius said: "This is a breakthrough gift - the largest private donation to the university since it was established in 1927 - and transformational for us, not only in what it delivers but in building momentum and potentially securing other support.
"We want to leverage this gift and build other partnerships on top of it."
