Billionaire Pledges To Pay Off Students' Debts During University Commencement Speech

“I know my class will make sure they pay this forward,” Robert Smith told 400 students.
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A billionaire investor surprised graduating students at a US university, pledging to pay off student loan debts of the entire class as he delivered his commencement speech.

Robert Smith left students and faculty at Atlanta’s Morehouse College in disbelief before they rose to their feet and applauded as he made the announcement.

“This is my class, 2019, and my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans,” Smith said during his speech, pointing towards hundreds of students dressed in black robes and mortarboards.

“I know my class will make sure they pay this forward,” Smith added.

The pledge is estimated to be worth $40m (£31m).

The black founder and chief executive of the private equity firm Vista Equity Partners has a net worth of about $4.4bn (£3.5bn), according to a 2018 estimate by Forbes magazine.

Morehouse is a historically black college (HBCU), one of more than 100 schools founded to serve black students, mostly in the US south, before the 1964 Civil Rights Act outlawed school segregation.

Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights hero, is among its notable alumni.

The weight of student loan debt has become a focus of many of the candidates seeking to be the Democratic Party’s nominee in next year’s US presidential election.

Some candidates have pledged to cancel large portions of the debt and make college more affordable.

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