University endowments in the United States earned an average return of 17.2 per cent for the 2007 fiscal year. The greatest gains were among 63 institutions with endowments over $1 billion, which gained an average of 21.3 per cent.

Harvard maintained its top standing with an endowment of $34.6 billion, followed by Yale ($22.5 billion), Stanford ($17.2 billion), Princeton ($15.8 billion), Texas ($15.6 billion), MIT ($10 billion), Columbia ($7.1 billion), Michigan ($7.1 billion), Pennsylvania ($6.6 billion) and Texas A&M ($6.6 billion).

The University of Toronto continues to have the largest endowment among Canadian universities at $2.5 billion, which would place it 27th on the U.S. list, and 7th among public universities. The University of British Columbia is second among Canadian universities with an endowment of $1 billion, placing it 78th in North America.

The remainder in Canada’s top 10 are McGill with an endowment of $832 million (92nd in North America), Alberta with $752 million (99th), Queen’s with $660 million (116th), McMaster with $499 million (147th), Calgary with $426 million (164th), Dalhousie with $321 million (205th), York with $306 million (210th) and Manitoba with $303 million (212th).

The Canadian university with the largest endowment on a per student basis was Mount Allison at $37,636 per student.

Across North America, a concern has been expressed about a reduction in earnings for the fiscal year 2008 as a result of stock market losses due to the fallout of the subprime mortgage crisis in the U.S.