British universities will get help in building their endowments under a plan to encourage private giving that Prime Minister Tony Blair is scheduled to announce this week. Under the plan, the government will offer a 50-percent match on private contributions, up to £2-million, or about $3.9-million, in public funds, The Guardian reported.

Seventy-five top institutions, including the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, will be eligible for the matching money, the newspaper said. Other universities will be given money to help set up fund-raising centers. Mr. Blair has said that other public funds for universities will not be reduced. He hopes instead that his plan will embed a culture of charitable giving in Britain and provide a missing piece in the “jigsaw” of support for higher education.

The Sutton Trust, an educational charity that seeks to increase access to higher education for underrepresented groups in Britain, recommended similar government efforts late last year. In a report in December, it noted that the combined endowment of all British universities was $15.36-billion, compared with Harvard University’s endowment of nearly $30-billion.