At least 2 prestigious universities saw bigger endowment gains than Harvard

Harvard University's endowment - the largest university endowment in the world - grew to $37.6 billion in fiscal year 2015, a 5.8% increase, student newspaper The Harvard Crimson reports.

The Crimson notes that Harvard was again beat by rivals such as Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Stanford's endowment grew 7% in fiscal year 2015, while MIT's grew 13.2%, according to The Crimson.

This was supposed to be a turnaround year for Harvard's endowment, which over the past few years has typically performed worse than many of its Ivy League peers.

In September 2014, the university named Stephen Blyth as the Harvard Management Company president and CEO, replacing Jane L. Mendillo, who had run the endowment since 2008.

Harvard appears to be the first Ivy League university to report endowment returns this year. Here's how the university stacked up with the rest of the Ivies for fiscal year 2014:

1. Yale University - 20.2% return
2. Princeton University - 19.6% return
3. Dartmouth College - 19.2% return
4. University of Pennsylvania - 17.5% return
5. Columbia University - 17.5% return
6. Brown University - 16.1% return
7. Cornell University - 15.8% return
8. Harvard University - 15.4% return

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