US academe gives Britain a lesson on bottom line

Helen Warrell reports for the Financial Times on Sutton Trust research showing a growing university endowments gap between the US and UK.

When it comes to UK university funding, small is not beautiful. That is the painful lesson from research carried out by the Sutton Trust. Ten years that saw huge swings in markets and the worst recession since the war did nothing to alter the league table of universities. The best endowed universities then are the best endowed universities now, with only a few moves up and down league table.

Overall, the gap between Oxford and Cambridge and all the rest has widened. Indeed only five non-Oxbridge universities have endowments greater than £100m – a sum that is exceeded by the endowments of a number of individual Oxbridge colleges.

Read the full article  (£) here

John Authers commentary for the FT (£) here