I n October, the Wisconsin School of Business was given an unusual naming gift. As well as supporting the school and its programmes, the donation of $85m (£43m)was to guarantee that the name of the school would be unchanged for at least 20 years. The gift, donated by a small group of alumni calling themselves the Wisconsin Naming Partnership, is one of a series of large donations that, in the past couple of years, have been finding their way to US business schools.

Others include gifts to west coast schools, such as this January's $30m donation to California State University's business college - the fourth largest seen in the university's history - and October's $25m gift to the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business - the largest individual donation to the school.