Ranking of 251 Colleges and Universities in Net Assets Growth

A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research

For Release: April 8, 2015

Contact: James L. Doti President and Donald Bren Distinguished Chair of Business and Economics (714) 997-6611 or doti@chapman.edu

Ranking of 251 Colleges and Universities in Net Assets Growth

While academic rankings of various kinds regularly populate print and electronic media, little attention is given to the financial underpinnings of colleges and universities. This press release presents trends and includes rankings of the most comprehensive measure of an institution's financial health ? net assets (assets less liabilities). This measure reflects an institution's ability to advance its mission. That may include providing adequate funding for its academic programs and capital infrastructure, support for financial aid and funding for the rapidly escalating costs of IT and governmental regulatory requirements.

Ranking institutions by growth in net assets will help identify colleges and universities that are succeeding or failing in generating financial resources that can be allocated to accomplishing institutional objectives.

In 2013, total net assets of $373.2 billion for 251 of the largest independent colleges and universities in the U.S. surpassed the pre-recession high reached in 2008.

The results show that net assets increased 9.4 percent from 2012 to 2013 as compared with a 0.8 percent decline from 2011 to 2012.

Over the entire 2003 to 2013 period, net assets increased at an average annual rate of 5.9 percent. This represents a sharp increase over the 3.2 average annual percentage growth experienced during the 2000 to 2010 period.

This average growth masks a great deal of variation within the total sample of 251 independent institutions. The following figure shows that while the Top and Bottom 25 colleges and universities experienced very similar trends in net assets growth, the Top 25 outpaced the Bottom 25 every year from 2004 through 2013.

Average annual growth over the entire 10-year period was 8.8 percent for the Top 25 versus 0.38 percent for the Bottom 25. Seven of the colleges in the Top 25 experienced double-digit average annual growth. In contrast, eight of the colleges in the Bottom 25 experienced a drop in net assets from 2003 to 2013, including Sweet Briar College, which recently announced its closing. As compared with the previous 2000 to 2010 study, there are 10 new additions to both the Top 25 and Bottom 25 rankings, suggesting a good deal of fluidity for only a three-year difference in the sampling period. These findings are based on a methodology explained more fully in an article by Dr. Jim Doti, "A Vital Statistic," published in the November 2013 issue of Business Officer ? a magazine of the National Association of College and University Business Officers. Note: If this link does not work directly, please copy/paste it into your Internet browser: 3/A_Vital_Statistic.html The Business Officer article presents results of a study that analyzed changes in net assets (total assets less total liabilities) over a 10-year period, 2000 to 2010. The data was made

available through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) for 251 four-year and above independent colleges and universities that had net assets greater than $100 million in 2000.

This press release updates those results in a survey that covers the 2003 through 2013 fiscal years. It is the second of what will become a regular survey of net assets growth in colleges and universities over the most current 10-year period.

Top 25 Schools

Registered the Highest Average Annual Percentage Changes in Net Assets from 2003 to 2013

Institution Chapman University Quinnipiac University Villanova University Marist College DePaul University Hofstra University American University Fordham University Saint Joseph's University Claremont McKenna College Nova Southeastern University University of Scranton University of Notre Dame Elon University Providence College Dickinson College University of San Diego Butler University York College Pennsylvania Boston University Stanford University University of Denver Loyola University Chicago Furman University Campbell University

'00-10 3 1 6 4 7 25 11

5

10

14 19

18

22

17

12

Rank

'03-13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Change

Net Assets

Millions of $ 2003 2013

Average Annual

% Change

$226 $731 12.43

$230 $694 11.68

$243 $732 11.65

$128 $379 11.45

$285 $806 10.94

$203 $533 10.11

$336 $876 10.04

$442 1,139 9.93

$138 $350

9.77

$362 $918

9.74

$245 $609

9.54

$129 $314

9.29

$3,437 $8,296 9.21

$157 $372

8.99

$184 $431

8.89

$193 $451

8.86

$358 $808

8.50

$125 $281

8.41

$130 $291

8.38

$1,096 $2,448 8.37

$11,551 $25,723 8.34

$496 $1,093 8.23

$572 $1,256 8.18

$377 $823

8.12

$161 $350

8.10

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