| Cambridge Top Five | Income £m | Assets £ m | Oxford Top Five | Income £m | Assets £ m | |
| Trinity | 19 | 310 | St John's | 5.5 | 90 | |
| St John's | 5.9 | 91 | Christ Church | 4.7 | 90 | |
| Jesus | 2.9 | 51 | All Souls | 3 | 61 | |
| Gonville & Caius | 3 | 91 | New College | 2.0 | 60 | |
| Peterhouse | 1.9 | 30 | Merton | 2.8 | 56 |
| Total income £47 million | Total income £51 million |
| Total assets about £800 million | Total assets about £1 billion |
TRINITY COLLEGE, Cambridge. has been revealed as one of the single richest educational institutions in Britain with investments totalling about £310 million. Its worth - equal to some of Britain's best-known companies such as the Body Shop and more than twice that of Newcastle United - is disclosed by the first accounts required by law from Oxbridge colleges. Their total assets are worth almost £2 billion.
The new accounts show that the assets, mostly shares, farmland and commercial property, generate £100 million of income for the colleges each year. The analysis coincides with radical plans by some Oxbridge colleges to start charging top-up fees to students if proposals to cut their grant are approved by the government.
They are fighting to retain the additional £35 million handout they get from the taxpayer to support their medieval collegiate system and individual tutorials. The subsidy means Oxbridge gets £5,800 of public funds for each student, compared with the £4,000 received by other universities - even though half of Oxbridge undergraduates have privileged public school backgrounds, a far higher proportion than most other universities. The system has been heavily criticised by Labour MPs and is being reviewed by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, which will report this month.
The colleges say, however, that the subsidy comprises up to 60 percent of their income and warn they will have to charge students directly if they are abolished. Such a move would effectively turn the colleges back into private institutions catering mainly for foreigners and the rich. The annual fees, averaging £2,000, would be in addition to the £1,000 annual tuition fees that all students must pay from next year, as well as the money that many already borrow to top up their student grants.
Alan Ryan, Oxford professor of political theory, who chairs the Conference of Oxford Colleges, said a university committee was studying alternative funding. "There is no doubt that colleges would have to start charging fees or go broke," he said. Cambridge has set up a similar committee. The accounts reveal, however, that many of the colleges have assets and reserves that would last them for decades, even if the subsidy was halted. Others say that the colleges could easily raise yet more millions from appeals to alumni and industry which could be invested to generate a replacement for the lost income.
Oxford and Cambridge were set up in the 12th century as centres for theology, law, medicine and the arts. Over the centuries they were strengthened by royal charters and donations of property. Their lust for land was reinforced by ancient laws that said that they could recruit students only in areas where they held property. One of the proudest boasts of the two institutions was that a person could walk from Oxford to Cambridge entirely on land owned by the two universities.
Oxbridge colleges are all charities but the finances of many were secret until this year, when the law that exempted them from filing accounts was changed. The accounts still omit any valuation of their investments, which have to be estimated from their income. The accounts show that Trinity College, Cambridge, founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, received nearly £19 million from its investments last year. Trinity's nearest rival is St John's, Oxford, which received £5.5 million from assets worth more than £90 million. That contrasts with younger provincial universities which depend almost entirely on state grants.
Richard Benthall, treasurer of Christ Church, Oxford, which gets £4.8 million a year from investments worth £90 million, said the income from college fees and from investments was vital for Oxford and Cambridge to retain their status as world-class universities. "Ending college fees would be disastrous. It may sound as if we are rich but every penny is accounted for. The collegiate system is expensive to maintain; if we lose fees we will have to charge the students. That will make the colleges even more elitist," said Benthall.
Such assertions may anger rival institutions as they observe the latest round of improvements announced by the universities. At Cambridge they include a new divinity building, mathematical science complex, computing block and an Institute of Criminology, plus an £11 million extension to a university museum. Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, has financed a new library, two new fellowships and new computer rooms after a fundraising drive.
Oxford has also raised more than £340 million from alumni and business in a campaign overseen by Henry Drucker, an American fundraiser who was subsequently recruited by the Labour Party. Oxford plans to install en suite bathrooms for students at New College and a new library at St Hugh's.
Sir Christopher Ball, who negotiated Oxford's grant increases with the government during the 1980s, said he now regarded the fees as "a form of corruption". He added: "It is a disproportionate investment in a small number of already privileged people."
Lord Desai, professor of economics at the London School of Economics, is one of many senior academics at other institutions who object to Oxbridge's privileged status and think they should lose their state subsidy. He said: "After having argued the need for a lean and fit British industry, when we allowed all sorts of things to go to the wall, these Oxbridge colleges are being protected. Blessed are the rich, for they will inherit the earth."
Go to the next item in the 1997 Oxbridge funding row, the Sunday Times editorial.
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.