A wealthy couple have made two huge donations totalling £2.4m to Oxford colleges.

Hugh and Catherine Stevenson have made a benefaction of £1.2m to University College, Oxford, where Mr Stevenson was an undergraduate.

The generous offer follows a gift of a similar amount in May to St Hilda's College, where Mrs Stevenson was a student.

The latest gift will be used to endow two Junior Research Fellowships - one in an arts subject and one in science, the first of which will be endowed next year.

The cash boost comes as University College prepares to celebrate its 750th anniversary next year.

The couple, who now live in London and have two sons and two daughters.

Mr Stevenson said: "My wife and I are delighted to be able to support the provision of opportunities for the most promising young scholars to launch themselves on careers of research."

Lord Butler of Brockwell, Master of University College, added: "We are hugely grateful to Hugh and Catherine Stevenson."

Mr Stevenson, until this year chairman of Mercury Asset Management Group plc and also one-time director of SG Warburg and Co merchant bank, studied law at University College from 1961 to 1964. Mrs Stevenson studied physics at St Hilda's at the same time.

The Stevenson family has a long association with University College. Mr Stevenson's uncle, George Stevenson, was a fellow in ancient history from 1906 to 1949 and other members of his family have studied at the college.

Mrs Stevenson's father read chemistry at Merton College in 1928. He then came back to Oxford in 1969 to work in the Vice Chancellor's Office. and was elected a fellow at Wolfson College in 1970.

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