Philip H Knight, the founder of Nike Inc, has pledged 400 million USD to the Stanford University, which has enabled it to launch the largest fully-funded scholarship programme in the world.

The scholarship programme, named the Knight-Hennessy Scholars, has an endowment of 750 million USD, more than 80 per cent of which will go towards directly supporting the entire graduation and living expenses of the scholars. Under this programme, under-graduate universities will be nominating high achieving students who have displayed leadership skills, along with civic commitment, out of which, 100 students will be selected annualy from varying nationalities and backgrounds for the programme.

The programme, launched with the help of one of the largest philanthropic gifts to a university, has been named after Nike co-founder, philanthropist, American businessman and alumnus Philip H Knight, and Stanford's 10th outgoing president, John L Hennessy.

The selected scholars for Stanford's graduate programmes will receive three years of funding, in order to pursue their Master's or doctorate level degrees, or professional courses. Along with this, they will receive additional skilling in leadership and innvoation to make them more capable of leading high-end changes in the outside world.

The scholarship programme has been the single largest contribution in student's financial aid in the history of the varsity. It will help build Stanford's position as a globally leading university in teaching and research, with seven globally-ranked multidisciplinary graduate schools.