Report by Matt Trueman in The Oxford Student, 7th October 2004
Financial problems in Oxford colleges have come to light after accounts were published for the first time, revealing almost half to be running in the red. Of the 36 colleges, 15 made stark losses, with many running up debts well into the hundreds of thousands of pounds.
However, their combined assets total of £2bn leaves the University far better off than any other in the UK except Cambridge. Unsurprisingly, St John's tops the table with £202m in resources, followed by Christ Church and All Souls, with £173m and £129m. Yet of those, only Christ Church avoided a deficit, while St John's lost £830,000.
The college accounts, made public in 1997 when the 1993 Charities Act became law, are available at a cost of £64, but have been posted on the internet by philosopher Andrew Malcolm, who is engaged in a long-running feud with the University. This comes as financial analysts have slammed colleges' management of their investments, describing their performance as "lamentably poor". An independent report reveals colleges to be receiving a worse rate of return than had they invested their money in a high-street bank account.
Average income from college assets was just 3.8 per cent. However, college bursars have dismissed the report as "codswallop", claiming that it ignores the 6.7 per cent growth in the value of endowment assets by the end of the year, giving a more impressive 8.7 Per cent average return.
Total Assets
Richest: St John's £202m, Christ Church £173m, All Souls £129m,
Magdalen £102m
Poorest: Templeton £1m, Harris Manchester £1m,
Linacre £4m, Mansfield £5m
Surplus/Deficit
Winners : Keble £1.4m, Christ Church £1m, New £833,000, Exeter £819,000
Losers : St John's £830,000, St Hugh's £801,000,
Balliol £678,000, Templeton £567,000