The world's universities face an unhappy new year, academics warn, as the global financial crisis cuts endowments, investments and budgets.
In Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, universities have been hit hard as the value of investments in property, shares and other income sources has collapsed.
In the US, the University of Texas reported losing at least US$1 billion on its investments and endowments last year. As of early October, Loyola University in Chicago had losses to its endowment of more than US$30 million, with losses still rising.
'The effects of the deepening global financial crisis and economic recession are now spreading and ravaging all sectors, including higher education,' said Paul Zeleza, head of the department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois in Chicago.
'A dozen US states have announced funding cuts to their universities, rich private universities are watching with mounting trepidation their huge endowments melt and student funding streams are drying up as student-loan companies fold or tighten credit,' Professor Zeleza said.
In Britain, the first bad news came in October with reports that several universities, including Cambridge and Oxford, were experiencing financial crises after being blocked from accessing funds in Icelandic banks amounting to more than GBP1.16 billion (HK$13.48 billion).