Paulson has come in for some well deserved criticism for
giving $400 million to the world’s richest university (Harvard’s endowment
currently stands at around $36 billion dollars).
There are of course some
enterprising and worthy projects being funded by wealthy private individuals. For example, Ashoka University is an
attempt to create a world class private liberal arts university in India:
http://www.asianscientist.com/2014/11/features/private-uni-headed-top-indias-charts/