But according to a report by Professor Anthony Glees, the director of Brunel University's Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, some are proving to be counter-productive.
He said the centres peddled one-sided views of Islam and the Middle East, tantamount to anti-Western propaganda.
Professor Glees added: "The Government must reconsider its plan to use higher education in the fight against the radicalisation of young British Muslims.
"If it proceeds, it will create the very situation the Government wants to avoid: the development of self-imposed Muslim apartheid in the UK."
Last year ministers declared Islamic studies a "strategically important subject" and set aside £1million for its quango, the Higher Education Funding Council for England, to develop teaching of the subject.
According to Professor Glees, Oxford and Cambridge are among eight universities to have accepted more than £233.5million from Saudi and Muslim sources since 1995.
He said most of that total - which amounts to the largest source of external funding to UK universities - financed Islamic study centres.
Arab donors claim their financial gifts help academic institutions promote understanding between the West and Islamic worlds.
At a conference in London this Thursday the Government is expected to call for more of the centres at UK universities.
Durham, University College London, Exeter, Dundee, City and the London School of Economics are the other six institutions to have accepted donations from Saudi royals and other Arab sources.
Professor Glees called on the Government to ban universities from accepting money from Saudi or Islamic groups to fund Islamic studies and wants all university donations to be made public.
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