Harvard University has the largest endowment in 2015 at $36.4 billion, up 1.6 percent, followed by Yale University, which grew 7 percent to $25.6 billion, according to Nacubo and Commonfund. The University of Texas System saw endowment assets shrink 5.3 percent to $24.1 billion and the fund fell to third place behind Yale from second the year prior. Texas A&M University also shrunk as both endowments count on oil and gas royalties as a revenue source.
Some of the fastest growing funds were also ones that produced top investment returns in 2015, including endowments at Bowdoin College, which was up 14.5 percent; the University of North Carolina, which grew 10.9 percent; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, up 8.4 percent, the survey found.
Bigger endowments on average produced better returns, as they had larger allocations to riskier alternatives such as venture capital and private real estate, according to the survey. Universities and colleges with more than $1 billion had an average return of 4.3 percent, versus a low of 1.9 percent for those with between $25 million and $50 million.
The survey found a growing majority of schools formally analyzing their portfolios for risks of losses from different market scenarios. It also revealed that, despite the ongoing campus campaigns demanding divestment from publicly-traded oil and gas companies blamed for global warming, there was very little change in those committing to more responsible investing principles.
Another revelation was the slowdown in outsourcing, where schools have opted to shutter their investment offices and hire an outside firm to manage all their money. The survey found that 43 percent of universities and colleges substantially outsource their investment management function, unchanged from the year prior.
“While the use of outsourcing has been increasing for a number of years, this year may indicate a pause in this trend,” the two groups said in a statement.