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Imperial's very small endowment

Just been looking at harvard, cambridge etc, and noticed their huge endowments, $34billion for harvard, £4.1billion for cambridge, £306million for york, £90 million for UCL but only £47million for imperial. Why on earth is imperial so poor???

Reply 1

tuppatopbrer

hmm, the recent observation that current A Level students need to be spoonfed... ry telling us now when each university was founded.

Now, just looking at wiki, it says that York Uni (THE CANADIAN UNI) has an endowment of $306 mill.

Conclusion: You (or I) doesn't know the point you're trying to make.

Reply 2

WokSz

17

York University? You mean the one in Canada?

Yes, sorry.

It's because since Imperial is a mostly male Uni, our collective "endowments" more than make up for it :biggrin:

I'll be quiet now.

Reply 5

MyNameIsFelix

I'm sure that's got to be wrong??? Southside alone must be worth that much!

Reply 6

Azimuth

2

Because it's very small and has fewer students than all of those universities. It also offers far fewer courses.

Reply 7

CityMonkey

11

Endowments aren't an accurate reflection of university incomes/expenses. By all accounts, Imperial has the highest research grants income of any unversity in the UK. Plus, Cambridge and Harvard are hardly fair comparisons, the former having been around for 800 years (a little thing known as compound interest helps a bit in this area too!) and Harvard has been for 300 years, not to mention that in America, giving money back to your university when you leave and become successful is almost expected. There's a much bigger culture of donations to alma maters than is the case in the UK.

Reply 8

andrikkos

ashy

It's because since Imperial is a mostly male Uni, our collective "endowments" more than make up for it :biggrin:

I'll be quiet now.

LOL

Reply 9

Gimperial

OP

11

tuppatopbrer

hmm, the recent observation that current A Level students need to be spoonfed... ry telling us now when each university was founded.

Now, just looking at wiki, it says that York Uni (THE CANADIAN UNI) has an endowment of $306 mill.

Conclusion: You (or I) doesn't know the point you're trying to make.

Ok Ok no need to get nasty.

But your argument about when they were founded are largely irrelevant, as can be seen on: http://www.suttontrust.com/reports/endowments_report.pdf

From there I quote:

What is perhaps surprising is that the
US universities have only created these
enormous endowments over the last
20 years, with substantial growth
occurring in the last eight years. Twenty
years ago, Harvard was the only
university with an endowment of over
$1 billion, whereas now there are
thirty-nine.

Infact, looking at that report, Imperial isnt even in top 10 in the UK, even Surrey (founded 1891, not long before Imperial) has a larger endowment, while only having around 3 thousand more students and £24mill larger endowment.

All I'm asking is, what led to Imperial having such a small endowment, it doesnt seem to be number of students or year founded.

I do understand MonteCristos point however about endowments not being that important and the research grant being very high or even highest (when number of students are taken into account).

Reply 10

tuppatopbrer

MonteCristo

By all accounts, Imperial has the highest research grants income of any unversity in the UK.

Is this from total grants received or just from the Government? From what I know IC has the largest government funded research grant per student (& staff), but are a bit behind in absolute terms.

Reply 11

Gimperial

OP

11

tuppatopbrer

Is this from total grants received or just from the Government? From what I know IC has the largest government funded research grant per student (& staff), but are a bit behind in absolute terms.

Probably per student. Wikipedia places it 4th in terms of absolute funding, oxbridge and UCL being ahead of it.

Reply 12

LoZEr

14

Yeah, i heard UCL had the greatest government grant.

Like monte said, American unis are so well known for having those alumni endowments - its almost like a tradition there.

Reply 13

ashley.brown

1) I think that £47m figure is from a very old report (or rather, the data was collected quite a while ago).
2) The Centenary fundraising drive has seen the college fund increase dramatically
3) Imperial has quite a lot of assets not included in the "endowment" figures which it is able to borrow against to raise more money. These include property around South Kensington and indeed the country as a whole.

Look at this: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/centenary/funds_raised_to_date.shtml

They've raised £136m since 2000, with the aim to raise another £71m in the next 3 years.

In that period the government will also give some extra funding to those universities raising money through donations: http://live.cgcu.net/news/1424.

I think Imperial is about twice the size (in terms of student numbers) as it was 10 years ago - that £47m figure is probably more than 5 years old too.

Reply 14

rhythm_bandit

11

haha this thread title is quite suggestive.

Reply 15

s.e.r.e.n.e

12

ashley.brown

I think Imperial is about twice the size (in terms of student numbers) as it was 10 years ago - that £47m figure is probably more than 5 years old too.

This always intrigue me --- why this dramatic expansion in student number? Surely this would dilute the quality of undergraduate intake?

Reply 16

Gimperial

OP

11

Spencer.Smith

This always intrigue me --- why this dramatic expansion in student number? Surely this would dilute the quality of undergraduate intake?

This is BS. If that was so, the best university in the world would have something like 100 students...

I find it funny how some people think that the quality of a graduate is solely reliant on their quality when they entered university. Noone seems to be taking into account that going to university can really improve someones motivation etc.

Reply 17

ashley.brown

- The place was over-subscribed so they expanded. Physics would like to expand again, as they are turning away good students
- Medical school mergers and the one with Wye also increased numbers

The total number of undergraduates is now capped at present levels to ensure that resources are not diluted - College thinks ~6.5k UGs and ~4.5k PGs is about the sweet spot.

Reply 18

D.Hilbert

7

ashley.brown

- The place was over-subscribed so they expanded. Physics would like to expand again, as they are turning away good students
- Medical school mergers and the one with Wye also increased numbers

The total number of undergraduates is now capped at present levels to ensure that resources are not diluted - College thinks ~6.5k UGs and ~4.5k PGs is about the sweet spot.

This is excellent imo. :smile:

Reply 19

s.e.r.e.n.e

12

ashley.brown

- The place was over-subscribed so they expanded. Physics would like to expand again, as they are turning away good students
- Medical school mergers and the one with Wye also increased numbers

The total number of undergraduates is now capped at present levels to ensure that resources are not diluted - College thinks ~6.5k UGs and ~4.5k PGs is about the sweet spot.

But what is the problem of being over-subscribed? Imperial may turn away good students, but it certainly does not turn away good students at the scale and rate of Oxbridge/Ivies. Furthermore, by turning away more student, the place would be preceived to be more selective and exclusive?

Also, is it better to increase the % of PG compared to UGs? Many top US research intensive universities like Caltech and MIT have a much larger PG population than the UG one (esp. for Caltech).

Imperial's very small endowment

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