But spending rates held steady amid concerns about inflation as 25-year returns hung just below their target. College endowment returns averaged 30.6% after fees in the 2021 fiscal year, surging due to high investment performance led by U.S. equities, according to an annual study released Friday. The breakout 2021 figure far outpaced a 1.8% average return from the year before. It was the second-highest average return ever recorded in the study, which dates back to 1974 and is from the National Association of College and University Business Officers and financial services firm TIAA. Only a 41.3% average return in 1983 was higher.
