University endowments at elite American schools astound me, when we compare those numbers with education funding in Australia. Harvard’s endowment in 2007 was $US 34,600 million. Next highest was Yale’s $US 22,500 million. Third highest was Stanford’s at $US 17,100 million. The 10-campus University of California had a total endowment of $US 8,000 million. These numbers make the $A 8,300 million total for all tertiary education in Australia for 2007-08 seem tiny, even allowing for the fact the US population is 15 times larger than Australia’s.