Higher education’s billionaire benefactor is at it again.
Media mogul and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Monday a $1 billion gift to Johns Hopkins University, where he graduated 60 years ago. The gift, via his Bloomberg Philanthropies, will make the university’s medical school free for most students and help expand financial aid for students in nursing and public health. Nearly two-thirds of current and entering medical students at Johns Hopkins will qualify for free tuition, in some cases, including living expenses, according to the university.
In his annual philanthropy letter, Bloomberg said America’s health professions are still reeling from the pandemic. “As the U.S. struggles to recover from a disturbing decline in life expectancy, our country faces a serious shortage of doctors, nurses, and public health professionals — and yet, the high cost of medical, nursing, and graduate school too often bars students from enrolling.”
Bloomberg’s gift matches the biggest publicly announced donation so far in 2024 — another $1 billion given to cover tuition for medical school students. In February, 93-year-old Ruth Gottesman, widow of a New York financier, announced the donation to Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. The college, where Gottesman is a professor emerita, said the money would eliminate tuition for all students.
The two gifts are the latest philanthropic efforts to provide a tuition-free or low-cost college education to students, particularly those from low- and middle-income homes. In January, Kalamazoo, Mich., billionaire Ronda Stryker and her husband, William Johnston, gave $75 million to Spelman College for endowed scholarships. In March, Dartmouth alum and former Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt and his wife, Barbara, gave Dartmouth College $150 million for financial aid for students from middle-income families.
Bloomberg arguably started the trend in 2018 when he gave $1.8 billion to Hopkins for financial aid for low- and middle-income undergraduate students. It remains the largest gift to any college or university. The number of undergraduate students entering Hopkins from low-income backgrounds or who are the first in their families to attend college has grown 43 percent, according to the university.
With his gift, Bloomberg also joins a number of foundations and philanthropists directing sizable gifts to bolster the medical and health fields. In 2022, Leonard Lauder, heir to the Estée Lauder cosmetics fortune, gave $125 million to the University of Pennsylvania to create a tuition-free program that eventually will train 40 nurses a year.
“Making medical and nursing school more affordable is a societywide challenge, but individual schools — and donors — can help lead the way,” Bloomberg wrote in his annual philanthropy letter.
Bloomberg’s gift ensures that he will continue his long run as one of America’s biggest philanthropists. He topped the Chronicle’s list of the biggest donors of 2023 when he gave away $3 billion. He’s appeared on that list every year but one since 2004.
He’s given more than $4.5 billion to Hopkins alone, according to the Washington Post.
