University of Houston Endowment

Academic Excellence
#1

Was curious how we were doing endowment wise,
and found FY2021 data ( that’s thru Nov 2020) that
shows us at 887 million for the system. That compares to 800 million in FY2020 and $723 million in FY2019. We should see
the next quarterly update ( Dec 20 - Feb 21 ) in next couple of weeks.

What does it mean ? Obviously we aren’t in ut or a$m PUF club. Unclear to
me if or how the “Here We Go” campaign impacted the endowment. For
comparison TTU was at 743 million for 2019 ( https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/texas-tech-university-3644) and the TTU system was at 1.3 billion. Bottom line, we need to find a way to grow
this thing.

I’m curious now how the AAU schools fare in this metric. I’m guessing they will all be
well over 1 billion. I’ll try and find the numbers and post them if I don’t get too lazy.

Edit: Stony Brook University is AAU school with an endowment of only $360 million.
I looked at them because 1) public 2) large school w 26k students 3) recently joined AAU in 2001

#2

You may recall that I posted some months ago that if UH were in the B1G, our endowment would only rank above Maryland’s; it now appears that we might be dead last.

That said, our system-wide endowment is now over $1 billion.

See here.

https://www.nacubo.org/-/media/Documents/Research/2020-NTSE-Public-Tables--Endowment-Market-Values--FINAL-FEBRUARY-19-2021.ashx

We’re ranked #114 in the country out of more than 4000 institutions of higher education in the USA.

We are ahead of several AAU members, including Buffalo, Oregon, Arizona, Cal-Davis, Stony Brook, etc.

#3

If we’re over 1 billion, we’re in good company. Good to hear.

#4

Thanks uhlaw97; Thats a great link.

Pleased to see we around the 1 Billion mark. I’m actually surprised that
some of the AAU members have such a “paltry” amount. I suppose another
way to normalize the data would be to look at endowment / number of students.
Or maybe endowment / faculty members, etc

#5

I believe that in preparation for our centennial, there will be another (probably smaller) fundraising campaign geared to increase the endowment and other special projects related to the master plan.

#6

I fully expect the university to be done with all the remodeling and outdoor spaces in the plans posted on another thread to make a big celebration for every milestone achieved.

#7

Cool so all we gotta do is start recruiting Fields Medalists and Nobel Laureates like Bama recruits Receivers and we’re AAU-bound.

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#8

I know you were being a little tongue in cheek, but you are actually 100% correct. More importantly, what we need to do is pick two or three areas that our university can focus on for research funding. Stony Brook, while having a smaller endowment, receives a huge amount of research funding due to its knowledge and expertise in nuclear science, computer science and mathematics. In 2015, it received over $230 million in research funding, which I am sure has only increased in the last 6 years.

UH? We got $150 million in 2016. Also, our economic impact is estimated at $3B, which is less than half of SUNY Stony Brooks $7.8 billion.

To me, UH is primed to become a go to place for (i) energy, especially alternative energy, (ii) technology, and (iii) health care. Those are the areas we should focus on. I do believe that the (i) and (iii) are effectively “in process” with the Houston Energy Institute and the new Medical School. The second one is where I would like to see more focus.

#9

EastCoastCoog,
Thanks for those insights about Stony Brook. I didn’t realize it had grants of that size or it’s areas of expertise. Perhaps a 4th area to seek distinction in would be space engineering or human space research that could align with the new med school. One problem I see with developing any centers of excellence is the
fierce competition. And the fact we have 2 800 lb gorillas in state that want to be in everything. I think it
would be helpful if the state would designate AND fund development expertise areas across all the state schools to prevent duplication and in state rivals. There’s enough competition already at the state level.

#10

lsu endowmement amout

If we’re close to 1 billion then we’re high on the list surpassing many schools. LSU is 500k or so for ex

lsu endowmement amout

#11

Right, LSU is significantly smaller than us as well with only about 34k students. And they are not
AAU members either. But they do have the same “Very High” Carnegie rating as U of H.
It’s kinda surprising to me LSU is not better off financially as it is THE flagship school in Louisiana; but it is Louisiana :wink:

So basically, at a 30,000 foot view, it looks as if we have a respectable endowment amount ( but more would be better) to put in action our AAU goals. Targeting specific areas to focus on that can enable access to the large grants that EastCoastCoog mentioned is probably key. Selling the school to
these “prized faculty” members comes down to I think, (i) recruiting more national merit students (ii) having a nice campus and (iii) having a desirable city/community. It is kinda fun watching what Dr Khator and the Board of Regents have accomplished in a relatively short time, and without state PUF access. Having the right leadership is so important. The best is yet to come.

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#12

Very good point NRGCoog. In fact I think your point regarding U-tee and it’s unwillingness to “share the glory” means that we as a university are going to have to do what we always do, go it alone. We know Utee would rather be the biggest fish in a very small pond, so we just have to approach research funding on our own. Sad that it has to be this way. The reason the BIG 10 is such a powerhouse is because it’s schools do everything together. Perhaps the AAC can look to create a common research funding joint venture. We need to hit up the federal politicians in the Houston metro area, regardless of party, to get us our fair share of research dollars and grants. That and the private sector in Houston should be more than enough to double our research funding in the next 10-15 years. If we can get our annual research fundin into the $300m range and increase our 5 year grad rates, I believe we can get into the AAU.

#13

There will be a building named after Khator someday.

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#14

I have a follow up question, to anyone really, in regards to the endowment and the entity called
The University of Houston Foundation. The latter shows a 12/31/20 ending balance
of about $185,000,000.

http://www.universityofhoustonfoundation.org

From the foundation website it states

The Foundation manages approximately 297 individually-named endowed funds. During fiscal year 2020, the Foundation disbursed $7.8 million to/or on behalf of the universities.

Per the 2021 budget, it looks like the endowment produces about $70-100million/yr in income for
the school from 2017-2021. See page 12 below.

The “endowment” we have discussed from other sources, shows us in
1 billion dollar range. Does the larger amount reported already include the Foundation amount
as well ? The school site gives a some breakout but does not clearly state what monies are(if ?) being counted from the Foundation.

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