Yale reports that its endowment increased by 28% last year….beating Harvard’s return by about five percent.

Yale’s 28% return easily exceeded the 17.5% average for foundations and endowments over the period and beat all other endowments with at least $1 billion in assets that have reported year-end results so far, according to the Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service.

Of course, Yale’s endowment of $22.5 billion is only about 2/3 of Harvard’s $34.9 billion.

Yale’s investment manager, David Swensen, has been in charge of the university’s investments since 1988, and over the past decade he has beaten Harvard’s return by an average annual 2.8%.

Among the other endowments which did better than Harvard’s were Amherst, Notre Dame, the University of Virginia, Duke, Michigan, and Northwestern. No one did better than Yale….

Could this have anything to do with the departure of Mohammed El-Erian?