Dartmouth Posts 47% Endowment Return; Fund Rises to $8.5 Billion

(Bloomberg) -- Dartmouth College’s endowment returned 47% in the fiscal year that ended in June, the latest university to post some of the strongest investment gains in decades.

The fund’s is now $8.5 billion, according to a statement Monday from the Hanover, New Hampshire-based school. That’s an increase of $2.5 billion. Unrelated to its returns, Dartmouth said it would bolster aid for low-income students, raise the minimum wage for student workers and give employees a bonus, among other programs. 

“We have the financial flexibility to not only safeguard the future but address current pressing needs,” Philip Hanlon, the school’s president, said in the statement. 

U.S. university endowments are on course for their best year in decades amid soaring venture capital and stock market gains. In turn, colleges are facing increased pressure about how they’re spending that money -- especially as the cost of tuition continues to rise. 

Big Endowment Returns Pressure U.S. Colleges to Boost Spending

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