<p>how is it so much higher than its peers? even cambridge/oxford who have existed before america was even discovered</p>
<p>i am wondering because a friend is picking brown over harvard but its endowment is tiny compared to harvard…are their FA’s the same?</p>
<p>Harvard financial aid is without parallel - even Yale doesn’t compare. In addition, Harvard gives out extraordinary grants to students in order to travel abroad and take on ambitious projects. The results of Harvard’s largesse is an extracurricular culture that’s unlike any other of which I’ve heard.</p>
<p>Cambridge and Oxford are public universities. Like American public universities, they have depended heavily on direct government support. They didn’t put a lot of effort into raising an endowment becuase no one thought they had to; the assumption was they were providing a public service that government would pay for out of general tax revenues. Like most state legislatures in the U.S., the British government is now substantially cutting back that taxpayer support, forcing large increases in tuition and fees at Oxbridge and elsewhere. I imagine this will also push the British universities in the direction of quasi-privatization, forcing them to put more effort into building their endowments, as some U.S. public universities (notably Michigan and Virginia) have already done. But they’ve got a long way to go to catch up to Harvard.</p>
<p>I’m not sure, but didn’t Harvard’s endowment grow by leaps and bounds because of good investments (stocks?) in the 80s and 90s?</p>
<p>And vice versa</p>
<p>"They didn’t put a lot of effort into raising an endowment becuase no one thought they had to; the assumption was they were providing a public service that government "</p>
<p>Well, recently both Oxford and Cambridge launched fund raising campaigns, and both received more than 1 billion pounds…not that bad result 
</p>
<p>It’s true, that Oxbridge are public universities, but not in the notion of US schools, as the state do not “own” them. In fact, their independence is like the private institutions of the US - own money, own buildings, and own law. The governments cannot “touch” them as it can do with public universities in the US. But, that’s true, they rely on government money, mostly on research grants (well…the US private universities also receive a hell lot of money from the government under the name of research, but people tend to forget this).
Cambridge and Oxford did not invest their endowment, they started to do that just recently, while US private universities are doing that for some time. It is sometimes risky, of course, as for example Harvard lost about one third of its endowment during recent years, and Stanford loose billions too. Cambridge and Oxford also lost a lot of money, but not billions. In sum, Oxford and Cambridge reacted to the “new” money making methods quite late. Both are exceptionally rich in not sellable stuff, like ancient buildings, silver, jewels, pictures, etc, but that obviously don’t count too much… </p>
<p>Still, on current pound-dollar exchange rate, (the pound is not very strong in these days, the exchange rate used to be around 2, not 1.6) Cambridge’s endowment is $ 6,44 billion, while Oxford’s is $ 4.89 billion - not bad even compared to US universities, although HYPS have the edge, that’s true.</p>
<p>In addition, both Cambridge and Oxford are rich in things that are sellable if must (in contrast with the mentioned stuff that are definitely not), like for example Trinity College, the richest college in Oxbridge owns land that value is about £ 2.5 billion. They are leasing most of their land, and earning some money through it </p>
<p>In sum, both Cambridge and Oxford are exceptionally rich in stuff that worth a lot in medieval times (all the mentioned arts, silverware, etc,) what can not be found in US universities, or anywhere in the world. They are also rich in stuff that still worth a lot, like the mentioned land (and I just mentioned Trinity’s land, but I have no idea how much worth is the combined value of land owned by the university and all of its colleges), but they, lets say, “missed the new valve”. Both universities are trying to fix it now, and follow the US way, with for example donation campaigns, but as far as I know, from that £ 1 billion they both collected in recent years, just about a fifth or tenth went to directly to the endowment.</p>
<p>excellent point…forgot they are on priceless real estate…cept for cambridge/palo alto i didnt find any of the big 5’s areas that amazing</p>
<p>I have heard rumours that certain oxbridge colleges sell a few bottles of wine from their cellars when they need instant cash. It’s definitely true that a lot of them own vineyards. You can walk from Oxford to Cambridge on college owned land. There is a lot of random valuable stuff hanging around. For example, there is definitely a Van Gogh hanging on a wall in Cambridge (it’s called L’All</p>
<p>A lot of US universities sit on valuable land as well that’s not included in their endowment totals. Some have billions more in assets that aren’t liquid.</p>
<p>^columbia sits on like 20 billion of manhattan property, but that doesn’t factor into the endowment unless they sell it. endowments do not (and probably should not) account for the value of land a university is located on.</p>
<p>^ but you could make the argument that the land provides a source of revenue like the endowment does. Stanford, for example, cannot sell any of its 8,000+ acres of land (a stipulation the founders set), but it sure does like to lease lots of it for very very high prices–and Silicon Valley is willing to pay it. That’s probably helped Stanford to grow a huge endowment so quickly.</p>
<p>*Well, recently both Oxford and Cambridge launched fund raising campaigns, and both received more than 1 billion pounds<a href=“Roughly%20$1.6%20bil.”>/i</a></p>
<p>Harvard’s last big capital campaign, raised $2.6 billion by 2001. They’re in the early stages of a new one. The thinking is they will aim to beat Stanford University’s $4.3 billion campaign. Yale’s still in a 3.5 billion campaign. These numbers are mindboggling. And, fundraising is a constant effort.</p>
<p>Doesn’t Univ. of Texas’ significant endowment include large Oil and Gas holdings?</p>
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<p>I think that is Harvard’s goal too. That’ll be hard to beat–mainly because Stanford finished the $4.3billion campaign in nearly half the time (two years ahead of time) and has been continuing with the campaign. By the end of this year, they’ll probably have raised a lot more than that. Of course, even if they do set a higher goal, it’ll probably take much longer. (And Stanford still raises the most $ in donations.)</p>
<p>Columbia announced a campaign larger than $4.3billion though. We’ll see how that goes.</p>
<p>Doesn’t Univ. of Texas’ significant endowment include large Oil and Gas holdings? </p>
<p>Yes, and the values are probably understated.</p>
<p>Amm…the land owned by Oxbridge is obviously not included in their endowment, have no idea why some mentioned this…The land they own definitely worth much more than their endowments. Also, we’re not speaking about the land of the university buildings, as most land owned by, say, Trinity is actually outside of Cambridge, or around it. The Oxbridge endowments are just like any US university’s endowments. The land and stuff Oxbridge owns is an other, separate thing.</p>
<p>And yes, Oxbridge is just making it’s first steps in fundraising. Harvard employs hundreds of people just dealing with fundraising and alumni relations, while Oxford, for instance, only employs dozens. But the numbers are increasing. Also, while more than half of Yale alumni gives donations to their alma mater, (partially because they send their children to Yale too…) in the UK, there’s no such thing exists. Oxbridge alumni is giving much higher numbers to their universities that any other UK universit’s alumni, still, its just about 16-20 percent. But numbers are growing. It seems, that after all those missed decades, Oxbridge adapted. There’s still much to do in both places, indeed, but at least thing changed regarding endowment handling and fundraising.</p>