| An assessment carried out by reveals that a massive | | | | billion). |
| accumulation of endowment wealth has been put | | | | This accumulation of wealth by the World's Top-25 |
| together by the World's Top-25 universities [1]. is an | | | | universities is quite astonishing. For example, the total |
| independent, global and interactive website where | | | | wealth accumulated by the World's Top-25 universities |
| visitors can obtain information about universities (global | | | | is greater than the budget of the State of California |
| rankings, student reviews, university news and campus | | | | ($111 billion in 2008-09) or it places these universities |
| pictures). | | | | 41st in the country ranking of Gross Domestic Product |
| The World’s Top-25 universities in 2008 (click here) | | | | (GDP) according to the International Monetary Fund (in |
| are mainly located in the United States (18 out of 25) | | | | front of Nigeria, Romania and Israel). The accumulation |
| and are often private institutions (11 out of 25). This | | | | of endowment wealth by universities has both positive |
| distribution is more pronounced for the World’s | | | | and negative sides. A large university endowment |
| Top-10 universities, where 8 out of 10 are located in | | | | supports the operating budget of the university and |
| the United States (US) and 7 out of 10 are private | | | | gives the university greater independence and |
| institutions. | | | | resources which can be used, for example, to |
| Total endowments for each of the universities were | | | | establish new research institutes or to fund |
| collected from Wikipedia.org (accessed on 29 October | | | | scholarships. In the fiscal year 2008, distributions from |
| 2008), and non-US endowments were converted into | | | | the Harvard University endowment totalled $1.6 billion, |
| US dollars (exchange rate of 29 October 2008). The | | | | contributing more than one third of the university's |
| endowments of two universities were not available: | | | | operating budget in addition to supporting substantial |
| the University of Tokyo in Japan (ranked 19th) and the | | | | capital outlays. |
| Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – Zurich in | | | | There are also a number of negative sides associated |
| Switzerland (ranked jointly 24th). The analysis is | | | | with large university endowments. One of these is that |
| therefore based on 23 universities (18 from the US | | | | it gives the university an image of accumulating too |
| and 5 from other countries (United Kingdom (3), | | | | much wealth and being greedy. Another is that it leads |
| Canada and Japan) and is a conservative estimate. | | | | to criticism about the allocation of the endowment |
| The total endowment of the 23 universities was $170.2 | | | | income (for example, Harvard University could allow its |
| billion, and ranged from $172 million (University College | | | | students to attend for free for just $300 million, which |
| London in the UK, ranked 22nd) to $36.9 billion (Harvard | | | | is a fraction of the 2008 endowment income. Finally, it |
| University in the US, ranked 1st). The median | | | | makes it impossible for other (less well endowed) |
| endowment is $5.9 billion, with universities in the US | | | | universities around the world to compete on an even |
| having higher endowments (median of $6.1 billion, range | | | | playing field with universities that have established very |
| $471 million to $36.9 billion) than those in the other | | | | large endowments. |
| countries (median of $2.2 billion, range $172 million to | | | | Background note: [1] The analysis is based on a ranking |
| $3.4 billion). | | | | of the World’s Top-500 Universities produced by |
| Four private universities in the US had 56% of the total | | | | the Institute of Higher Education at the Shanghai Jiao |
| endowment wealth of the World's Top-25 universities: | | | | Tong University. Several indicators of academic or |
| Harvard University ($36.9 billion - 22%), Yale University | | | | research performance are used to establish the |
| ($22.9 billion - 14%), Stanford University ($17.2 billion - | | | | ranking, these include staff winning Nobel Prizes, highly |
| 10%) and Princeton University ($17 billion - 10%). It is | | | | cited researchers and articles indexed in major citation |
| therefore no surprise that the private universities in the | | | | indices. The rankings have been published since 2003, |
| US have higher endowments (median of $7.2 billion) | | | | with the 2008 ranking published on 15 August 2008. |
| than the public universities in the US (median of $1.3 | | | | |