Sir,
The Oxford college accounts
What is it with the Oxford powers and seafood? First we had New College Warden Alan Ryan confessing (THES, 9th July) "I am psychologically challenged by managing anything larger than a whelk stall." Then St Catherine's bursar Fram Dinshaw admitted (THES, 16th July) "the way colleges manage their assets is still based on the smoked-salmon-pushing network." Now we have (THES, last week) the charitable bursars en masse accounting their own figures as "codswallop".
Their figures have lately been released on the Internet, at www.akme.btinternet.co.uk, so can now be trawled, angled and weighed by all. Will the bursars deny that their endowment income in 2002/3, averaged or overall, netted less than 3.8 per cent? Are they asserting that this is a good catch, from assets totalling about £1.7 billion? Can they gainsay that if one adds in their slippery (mostly 'desktop') capital gains, as urged by Frank Marshall, the kettle becomes even ranker, with 22 of the 36 colleges registering less than 5 per cent, six (Balliol, Wolfson, Magdalen, Somerville, Wadham, St Hugh's) actually negative, and two (Templeton, Harris Manchester) altogether off the scales?
Dinshaw accuses Scout of "having his cake and eating it", and talks of the colleges "hiding things", an issue Akme has not raised. Now I don't wish to carp, but that's what I'd call fishy.
Sincerely,
Andrew Malcolm
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.