Oxford University will today launch a massive fundraising campaign for £1.25 billion, the largest-ever funding bid by a European university, to keep it on a par with institutions like Harvard.

Famous Oxford alumni including Richard Dawkins, Michael Palin and Sir Roger Bannister, are backing the appeal for the cash which the university says is vital to maintain its world-class reputation.

The launch of the Campaign for the University of Oxford will aim to secure the finances of the 800-year-old university "in a world of uncertain state funding and growing global competition", it says.

The “brain-drain” to Ivy League colleges in the U.S. has taken its toll on Britain’s finest universities and Oxford hopes the huge injection of cash will stem the flow of the country’s best academics towards America.

Oxford was ranked equal second with Cambridge in a table of the best universities in the world recently, beaten by Harvard in the US.

Top universities in the States get far more money than Oxbridge and benefit from generous endowments from wealthy graduates.

David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader who attended Oxford at the same time as Boris Johnson, has added his voice to the calls for more contributions from graduates.

The initiative is advertised as “the most important campaign ever organised by a European university”, and will begin officially today at a high profile launch at the British Academy in London.

Lord Chris Patten, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, will announce a number of major donations already made, totalling £575 million. Top philanthropists have pledged to give to the campaign, including the billionaire Wafic Said, named in court as an intermediary in the controversial BAE arms deals.

The money raised will go towards new research laboratories and libraries and will be used to kick-start a system of endowments. Harvard University has an annual income of £1.5bn and an endowment worth £17.7bn. Oxford receives £676 million a year and has endowments of just £3.4bn.

Among those asking for donations will be venture capitalist Sir Ronald Cohen, publisher Lord Weidenfeld, former Labour minister Lord Sainsbury and former Conservative cabinet member Lord Waldergrave. Writers Seamus Heaney and Mario Vargas Llosa are also promoting the campaign.

Bolton and Quinn, the company behind the campaign, promises in the invites to the launch that "This will be the largest campaign ever to be initiated in Europe and aims to put Oxford on a level playing field with universities in America.” Bolton and Quinn has also promoted the London 2012 Olympics, the Tate galleries and the British Council.

Oxford University currently has almost 20,000 students: 12,106 undergraduates and 7,380 postgraduates.

Three years ago Cambridge launched a similar fundraising scheme, aiming to raise £1 billion to secure the university’s future.

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