An increasingly diversified investment strategy moving away from traditional equities and fixed income helped managers of US higher education endowment funds earn returns that beat the S&P500 last year, according to a new study.

A survey by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and TIAA-CREF, the pension to professors, doctors and scientists, found that managers of higher education endowment funds earned an average one-year return rate of 10.7% last year, compared to an 8.6% rise in the S&P 500 over the same time period.