Duke University endowment beats national average

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John West - Staff Photojournalist

Duke Chapel, Duke University, Durham, N.C.

Jason deBruyn

Staff Writer- Triangle Business Journal

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Duke University's endowment returns beat the national average last year, while returns for N.C. State and UNC-Chapel Hill were below that average.

As of June 30, the end of the endowment fiscal year, Duke's endowment reached $7 billion, a 17 percent increase from the same day in 2013. By comparison, the UNC-Chapel Hill endowment was $2.6 billion, an 8 percent increase; and the N.C. State endowment was $885 million, a 15 percent increase.

Read: Duke University sets fundraising record for second straight year

Nationwide, university endowments returned an average of 15.8 percent for the 2014 fiscal year, according to preliminary data gathered from 426 U.S. colleges and universities for the 2014 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments. That's up from the 11.7 percent return reported for the 2012-13 year.

Nationally, the larger endowments reported stronger returns. Institutions with assets north of $1 billion reported an average return of 16.8 percent and those with assets between $501 million and $1 billion reported an average return of 16.2 percent, according to NACUBO, a membership organization representing more than 2,500 colleges, universities and higher education service providers across the country and around the world.

Read: Colleges post healthy endowment returns in 2013

"With only a few exceptions, higher relative performance by the largest endowments is in keeping with the findings of our studies over more than a decade," said Commonfund Institute Executive Director John S. Griswold, in a statement. "Smaller endowments, which typically have the largest allocations to traditional asset classes, benefited from the strong performance of liquid domestic and international equities beginning in 2009. But the greater diversification practiced by the largest endowments and their emphasis on a variety of sources of return, both public and private, tends to result in higher long-term investment performance."

Jason deBruyn covers The Biopharmaceutical and Health Care industries. Follow him on Twitter @jasondebruyn.