Of the UK’s two oldest universities, it was Cambridge that set the trend towards a more sophisticated approach to managing its endowment – it hired Nick Cavalla from Man Group as its first chief investment officer in 2007, and drafted David Swensen on to its advisory board, after his success in transforming Yale University’s endowment – and with it the way the sector manages money. However, it is Oxford that has fully embraced the US model.

While Cambridge retains the bulk of its funds in public equities, with only modest allocations to private equity and absolute-return hedge funds, Oxford University Endowment Management has placed alternative investments at the centre of its strategy. This move has earned Oxford the respect of its peers and with it the new Financial News award for Best Allocator to Hedge Funds, narrowly beating Kedge Capital, the family office for the Bertarelli family.