Higher-ed endowments earn 19.8 percent

Colleges and universities in the U.S. earned an average of 19.8 percent on their endowments in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, continuing a post-recession rebound that began in fiscal 2010, preliminary data from 284 schools show.

But that strong posting was not enough to push endowments to their pre-recession levels and barely lifted five- and 10-year average returns above the average effective spending rate of 4.3 percent, says the report from Communfund Institute and the National Association of College and University Business Officers.