A FUNDRAISING campaign for Oxford University has reached the £2 billion mark.

The campaign called Oxford Thinking was launched in August 2004 and provides financial support for students, programmes of academic research, and new buildings and facilities.

The £2bn figure was reached just over three years after the campaign reached its initial target of £1.25bn, the fastest time such an amount had been raised by a European university.

Following that landmark, the university set itself a fresh target of £3bn.

The campaign was launched to support the university and Oxford colleges. The first billion was reached in October 2010 with Oxford alumni key supporters.

Philanthropists and organisations have also contributed major gifts, including venture capitalist Sir Michael Moritz and his wife, the writer Harriet Heyman, who donated £75m to create the MoritzHeyman Scholarship Programme.

And more than 1,200 donors contributed a total of £17m towards new quadrangles and buildings at Pembroke College, which were linked to the main site of the college by a new bridge.

Oxford University spokesman Matt Pickles said the funding had also contributed towards the £80m cost of the new Weston Library at the Bodleian Library and the refurbishment of the roof at the Museum of Natural History.

University Vice Chancellor Professor Andrew Hamilton said: “Reaching £2bn is an outstanding achievement.”