<p>I really don’t understand why top notch universities elsewhere (lets consider UK for example) aren’t even a fraction as rich as the US ones.</p>
<li><p>Why are the US universities so rich? How? Is it just money from donations or do they get some form of federal grants ?</p></li>
<li><p>Why are the UK universities relatively poorer? I realise that the UK universities are publicly funded but does that stop them from receiving donations and such ?</p></li>
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<p>hmmm.......a good point.....first I will observe wat others hav to say then I will give my point of view/explanation..</p>
<p>I don't know about other colleges, but Harvard got a huge donation right after it was founded.</p>
<p>All competitive universities, public and private, have endowments to provide a steady, reliable source of funding. Harvard University's endowment is the largest of any educational institution at $29.2 billion. Growth rate of Harvard's endowment was ~15% last year. That probably explains why American univ are the richest. Federal grants don't contribute much. Dunno why British univ don't invest in endowment funds, even if they do their endowment wouldn't be large enough to earn enough money.</p>
<p>Alright,its my turn.....got a point in my head............well as u know,these unis hav there own research teams n wide projects of very long n short natured.......wat do u think of their contribution.......according to me,they contribute A LOT........that is the main profit area......other main point is,they dont offer much aid at graduate levels...(not talking bout MS/PhD programs...think wat the highly interesting field for ppl is........obiviously MBA.....which a vital souce of income.........).......
other sources are from gov. as US is the largest economy........n I agree with Abhishiv's points..</p>
<p>Maybe because tuition at top schools in the US is like $45k+ per year, while tuition in other parts of the world (europe) is a mere fraction of that.</p>
<p>Just a guess... it's a good question.</p>
<p>By European standards, UK universities are actually quite rich. According to the Wikipedia for example, Cambridge's endowment was estimated at 3.1 billion pounds in 2005, which is not only the highest in Europe, but also, if ranked alongside US institutions, would place Cambridge 6th or 7th in endowment size. Oxford BTW is only slightly behind with endowment estimates in the range of 2.4 to 2.9 billion pounds according to the Wikipedia.</p>
<p>I agree with nauru. I would like to add that in most European countries universities are mostly funded by the public and the students only pay a fraction of what it actually costs (in Germany tuition is $0-$1000 a year).
And if a public university finds another big source of money, its public support is shortened (I recently talked about that with a uni prof here), so the universities actually don't even have a chance to establish an endowment.</p>
<p>The problem with Oxbridge is they don't have any liquid capital. Their wealth is mostly in their buildings, which are worth a lot but they can't really sell them (of course some of the colleges are involved in arms dealing but we won't even go there!). I guess they could take Kings College Chapel apart and sent it to a Japanese theme park, but people might object! Last year New College Oxford auctioned the contents of their wine cellar and all the professors there got £20,000 each from the profits (it's amazing what flashy new cars are parked there now!)</p>
<p>its a fact that Americans probably live the most 'luxurious' lives on earth...and their universities are no exceptions with lots of bucks at their disposal....but no matter what...it's still a jungle out there for an international student who wishes to get in with considerable financial aid....</p>
<p>I guess it's a combination of different factors. The higher fees charged by American Unis is one of these factors. the tax system in the USA also encourages people to donate money (especially the very rich). The university system in the USA also has had a longer "business" way of operating compared to the UK which only started to adopt this system since Tatchers goverment (as did many other institutions in the UK at this period). There is definatly a move taking place at the moment in the UK towards creating more business like operating unis and this can be seen at Oxford or the LSE.</p>
<p>The source of the american univiersities wealth is not high tuition fees or current earnings from the endowment.
Rather, it lies in the idea of the endowment itself. The US institutions have a tradition of tying their alumni much closer to them than European institutions - they instill a sense of loyalty to their alma mater that up till very recently hasn't been present in most of Europe.
This, combined with a tradition of insitutions being private and an american tradition of charity instead of government support - and of course tax laws that gives tax exemptions of certain types of donations - has over the years enabled the american universities to accumulate large amounts of capital.</p>
<p>[Cupcake] Do you know what percentage of Harvard's or Yale's endowment corresponds to "liquid capital" ? I wonder if it is that much different from Oxbridge.</p>
<p>I thought someone will notice at my points....:)....</p>
<p>Endowments are never used, earnings from endowment funds is used, it hardly matter then if the capital is liquid or land.
Assuming a tuition of 30k from 5000 students, income comes out to be 1.5 billion, compare that to 5 billion earned by Harvard's endowment fund last year. Not to forget that half of Harvard's student body is on Financial aid.
Given that Cambridge's endowment is 3.1 billion pounds it's endowment earning would be 10% of that of Harvard.</p>
<p>US uni depend a lot of alumnis, in fact i tink they depend more than college fees. Even though, some international students are unable to get financial aid, but for domestic students, esp private unis give really a lot of uni grants
(also depending on yr family income) and most of these grants come from the uni endowment.</p>
<p>Specifically, US schools rely on money from old, very rich alumni who donate a large amount of their wealth to their alma maters. It's common to make this sort of tax-deductible donation to a college to avoid having an estate get trashed by taxes -- the donor picks their college to get the money rather than the feds. It doesn't matter whether the alumnus is alive or dead either -- it works both ways. Most of that endowment comes from alumni who have more money than they can possibly spend.</p>
<p>I was on the board of directors of my college's alumni board for a few years. It was enlightening. Your college's love for you extends as far as your wallet. My name is on a plaque in the lobby of the Business building at my college, but when I stopped donating money every year I stopped getting invited to Dean's breakfasts, special meetings, and other highly-visible get-togethers. That was enlightening, too.</p>
<p>Something I learned on the board is that no college can hope to have a decent endowment until its first graduating class starts to die of old age.</p>
<p>^.........lol.........well,as I hav already indicated in my earlier post that evry alumni has an important part in it....</p>
<p>yah.. i guess so.. still they have a lot of grants from the federal government..
plus they are not forced to lower their fees so much compared to European universities... alumni play a great role in bankrolling the university..
then there are some campaigns on behalf of the deans to raise money...
in short, they are smart... to earn money....</p>
<p>200 th post here... woo hoo.. 100 to go!!!</p>