The co-founder of DeVry Inc. has donated $20-million to Princeton University for a new center to help educate engineering and liberal-arts students to work together to solve problems, the university announced today.

The idea that both disciplines stand to gain from cross-fertilization has generated buzz and debate lately at many colleges. The concept got a boost from a white paper issued in December by James J. Duderstadt, a president emeritus of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. His paper and recent reports from the National Academies have called on universities to better prepare students in all fields to understand and solve technical problems.

Princeton has been a leader in that integration. Sixty percent of its nonengineering students take at least one engineering course, the university says. The engineering school’s courses for nonmajors attempt to place technology in a social and historical context and emphasize entrepreneurship.

The $20-million gift is for a center in engineering education that will develop additional courses and support internships, among other goals.

The donors — Dennis J. Keller and his wife, Constance Templeton Keller — gave an additional $5-million for related projects in engineering, Princeton said.

Mr. Keller was the founding chairman in 1987 of DeVry Inc., the parent company of the chain of proprietary institutions that focus on technical and business education. Mr. Keller earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at Princeton in 1963 and is now vice chairman of the executive committee of the university’s Board of Trustees.

Princeton recently launched a $1.75-billion fund-raising campaign, which includes a goal of $325-million to support engineering to develop “a sustainable society.” The university says the Kellers’ gift is a big step in that direction. —Jeffrey Brainard