Alternative Investments Help College Endowments, Study Finds

Alternative investments — such as hedge funds and venture capital — are the key reason the nation’s wealthiest colleges are achieving such big gains on their endowments, a new Harvard Business School study has found, reports The Boston Globe.

The study, which examined Ivy League institutions and other top-tier universities from 1991 to 2005, found that they turned a $1-billion investment into $5.88-billion. The average college, which did not use so many alternative approaches, increased that sum to $3.68-billion in the same time.

For more on alternative investments and endowment growth, see The Chronicle’s annual study of endowments at nonprofit groups.

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