The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business has received one of the largest gifts in its history.

In recognition of the gift from alumnus Charles Harper, the Hyde Park Center on the university’s campus will be renamed the Charles Harper Center.

Mr Harper gained his MBA in 1950. The retired chairman and chief executive of ConAgra Foods credits the school for his success in business.

Mr Harper does not wish the amount of the gift to be disclosed. Previous large donations to the school include $25m (€18.4m, £12.6m) from Dennis Keller, chairman of DeVry, the higher education company and $20m from Robert Rothman, chairman and chief executive of Florida Bank Group.

Chicago GSB has raised $283m of its $300m goal in its current capital campaign. The campaign is part of the wider university’s Chicago Initiative, which hopes to raise $2bn by the end of June next year. www.chicagogsb.edu

Exeter school in virtual initiative

For many would-be MBA students, especially those from overseas, discovering what a school is “really“ like can be difficult.

However, the University of Exeter School of Business and Economics in the UK believes it may well have found a solution.

It has launched its own virtual community, which has already proved immensely popular in the few weeks it has been running.

Following an application to the school, the student is given access to its school’s intranet community. The applicant can contact future students, find accommodation, organise meetings, discover other students from his or her home country, share information and exchange gossip.

The intranet features a message board, applicants’ profiles and a class blog.

“The students have taken to it very quickly,“ says Charles Beard, marketing manager at the school.

“It is a great opportunity for them to meet fellow students of the future. For this generation, it is a very natural form of communication for them.

“They are getting into the community that will last them for the rest of their lives.

“Many students, especially those coming from overseas, are incredibly isolated and they really know very little about what they are applying for.

“A system like this helps them identify the people from their own course and [allows them to] get a feel of the community they are going to be moving into.“

Mr Beard now hopes the enthusiastic response from applicants using the Net will now translate into student placements. www.sobe.ex.ac.uk/