A £75m donation from an American industrialist has allowed Oxford University to open a new school of government.

The Blavatnik School of Government was opened yesterday by its namesake Leonard Blavatnik and is to be Europe’s first major school of government. Blavatnik’s donation, one of the biggest in the university’s history, was bolstered by a £26m commitment from Oxford University itself and the donation of land at Radcliffe Observatory Quarter.

Chancellor of the university Lord Patten said: “This is once-in-a-century opportunity for Oxford.”

The school will aim to educate post-graduate students from the around the world in matters of government, will be staffed by 40 academics and start taking students in 2012.

Prime Minister David Cameron praised the gift as “a very generous act of philanthropy” and predicted the school would be an influential hub of government study.