OXFORD and Cambridge University colleges - already among the richest institutions in Britain - have become even wealthier. New figures show that their investment income has increased by more than a third in five years.
Publication of the accounts comes as both universities demand the right to charge students more than the £3,000 a year in tuition fees proposed by the government. The figures show that Trinity college, Cambridge received £25m income from assets estimated at £636m - about the same as Manchester United, the world's richest sports club. Overall, the Oxbridge colleges generated £128m income from their estimated £4 billion worth of property investments, share portfolios and other investments built up over the centuries.
The figures, for the year to July 2002, compare with an income of less than £100m in 1997 and assets then estimated at about £2 billion. Despite their good fortune, both universities have been warning that they need large increases in income to maintain standards. Some senior academics have argued that they should break free of government rules which limit tuition fees. This could lead to "market-rate" charges of up to £15,000 a year. The universities already receive far more support from the taxpayer than their rivals. Like most universities they receive a state teaching grant based on student numbers but they also get an extra £30m each to support their collegiate systems.
Trinity - whose alumni include Isaac Newton, Lord Byron and the spies Kim Philby, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean - owns retail property in Cambridge, half of Cambridge Science Park and 4,000 acres of land around Felixstowe, Suffolk. In the year to July 2002 it made £1m from rent on agricultural land, £20m from property rents, £3.5m from share dividends and £0.5m from other assets.
The colleges are not required to reveal the precise value of the underlying investments that generate their income. But their assets can be estimated from typical investment returns used by City analysts [!] of 2% for agricultural land, 4% to 6% for property and 3% for shares. If Trinity college was an individual it would be 40th on The Sunday Times Rich List, just ahead of the Guinness family and Sir Alan Sugar.
In Oxford the richest college is St John's - Tony Blair's old college - whose income totalled £7.2m in 2002. It has assets estimated at £194m. Not all colleges can rely on such wealth. St Edmund's in Cambridge emerges as the poorest with an annual investment income of just £77,000. Oxford's 37 colleges made about £66m on investments in 2002 while Cambridge's 30 colleges made £62m.
| Richest Oxbridge colleges | Investment income 2002 (£m) |
| Trinity, Cambridge | 25 |
| St John's, Cambridge | 7.6 |
| St John's, Oxford | 7.2 |
| All Souls, Oxford | 4.8 |
| Christ Church, Oxford | 4.5 |
| Poorest Oxbridge colleges | Investment income 2002 (£,000s) |
| Wolfson, Cambridge | 157 |
| Clare Hall, Cambridge | 146 |
| Mansfield, Oxford | 145 |
| Hughes Hall, Cambridge | 143 |
| St Edmund's, Cambridge | 77 |
This reminds me of an article some years ago by the Warden of New College, Oxford, in which he stated that "Oxford and Cambridge are the Manchester United of the educational system". The Warden, Alan Ryan, was then pleading, under the headline Give us the money that the Government should spare Oxbridge's unique supervision system grants (worth about £2,000 per student per year, totalling £35 million), which New Labour's manifesto had promised to scrap.
Shortly after, new Labour reneged on its egalitarian election pledge, Manchester United nosedived to defeat in its disastrous tour of South America, and Oxford fell to seventh place under Birmingham in the employers' university league table.
Now we hear that Oxbridge, with its advantage over other UK universities of at least four billion pounds of commercial assets and of highly profitable tax-exempt presses, is threatening to charge 'free market' top-up fees of £15,000. Forget level playing fields; this is football on a mountainside.
Oxbridge colleges' accounts are now online [at www.akme.btinternet.co.uk. - the web address was edited out].
Andrew Malcolm, Brighton
CLICK FOR 2004 REPORTS ON THE OXFORD COLLEGES' WEALTH:
The Financial Times, 7/7/04 (+ table), The Times, 8/7/04 (+ barmy table), The Guardian, 7/7/04 (+ table), The Guardian, 8/7/04, The Daily Telegraph, 8/7/04,The Oxford Times, 9/7/04 (+ list). See Sunday Times, 28/3/04, THES, 16/7/04 and THES, 1/10/04.
CLICK FOR AKME INVESTIGATION: THE COLLEGES' INVESTMENT PERFORMANCE, 1973-2003
Press release and Index, and Oxford Student, 26/5/05 on the failure of the college contribution scheme.