Report: wealth gap in higher education growing

According to a report by Moody’s Investor Service, Americans colleges and universities are developing a wealth gap problem.

“One third of all assets held by colleges and universities” is with the country’s 10 wealthiest universities.

A few on the list include Harvard, Texas, Stanford, Yale, MIT, and Duke. Of the top ten, three are public universities. The rest are private.

Harvard, perhaps the nation’s most prestigious university, is also the country’s richest. In terms of wealth, Harvard is stout with $42.8 billion. That’s almost $10 billion more than the University of Texas, which comes in second.

The report also states that the country’s richest schools “capture the bulk of charitable gifts flowing to higher education” to the tune of 60 percent.

But one of the more interesting portions of the study lands with how many schools collect their revenue. The collection of tuition and student fees at the country’s top 20 private educational institutions has a median of 15 percent. That number jumps to 46 percent for public colleges.

Moody’s report concludes that because of the recovering economy and stock market, university endowments for the country’s wealthiest schools have aided in their increased wealth.

This report almost models how certain collegiate sports are fashioned. As power is concentrated in just a few NCAA conferences in sports like football and basketball that host big name schools like Alabama, Ohio State and USC, many kids will forgo opportunities at smaller schools in an effort to compete at larger, more competitive universities.

That example is a small sample size compared to the grand number of colleges and universities that many students have to choose from, but attracting the best and brightest to one’s campus is always easier when money flows as freely as spring water.

5 Replies to “Report: wealth gap in higher education growing”

  1. I never like to hear about education gaps – income, gender, racial – that’s not what we want to see in the US.

  2. I’m not at all shocked by this news, but it doesn’t make me happy. The wealth gap is significant – and is probably not going to get smaller any time soon.

  3. This is all very interesting. The gap should not be growing. I find this quote very surprising: “One third of all assets held by colleges and universities” is with the country’s 10 wealthiest universities.

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