<p>The UK and US systems of funding higher education are very different, and so it makes endowments less of a necessity. </p>
<p>In the UK, all undergraduates are eligible for government loans to cover the cost of tuition, and a combination of loans and grants for living costs, also from the government and on a means tested basis. For that reason, the need to provide large scholarships and bursaries to undergraduates, and therefore the need to fund these through a large endowment is removed. Although smaller (£3000 at the top end) bursaries are provided to those from the poorest families, these are usually funded from tuition fees and so do not impact on the endowment. </p>
<p>There is also less of a culture of large philanthropic gifts in the UK. Tax rates are higher (20% basic rate on income above ~£7500, 40% on income above ~£35,000) and so the government is able to a basic standard of living for all. We tend not to be believers in Republican-style small government, and it has often been said that the NHS is the second religion in the UK - it is (despite the fact that it is far from perfect!) universally popular - all Britons have either had their life saved by the NHS, or they know someone close to them who has. Due to the lesser culture of large philanthropic gifts, it is arguably harder to build up an endowment - but for the reasons stated above it is far less necessary. </p>
<p>As cupcake said, Oxford is unlikely to have much desire to start competing with Harvard. It is already very good at what it does - it attracts the best students and academics from the UK and abroad, it produces acres of world-leading research each year, and it has a system of teaching (the tutorial system) that is recognised as being very rigorous - and very rare around the world. </p>
<p>Oxford has been one of the world’s best providers of education since its foundation in 1096. I doubt it is going anywhere soon - and if it was, then you certainly wouldn’t be able to tell through league tables, which are some of the most subjective pieces of nonsense I have ever seen masquerading as fact.</p>