Although markets have picked up since, it is not clear if all the losses have been recovered.

Singapore Management University (SMU), the only one so far to report financial figures, said that it lost $99.2 million - almost a quarter of its $436 million endowment fund - in the twelve months to March 31.

The university's accumulated surpluses, which are invested together with its endowment, lost another $58 million in net asset value, said Teo Jwee Liang, chief investment officer at SMU.

The magnitude of SMU's losses gives an idea of what to expect when National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) report financial results by the end of the year.

They are unlikely to have escaped unscathed - many US universities have suffered billion-dollar losses to their endowments, with Harvard University losing 27 per cent in its last fiscal year, to about US$26 billion.

Yale University lost 30 per cent of its endowment and a survey of foundations and endowments with assets of more than US$1 billion by Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service found an average decline of 17 per cent in fiscal 2009, according to reports.

The three local universities together have about $2.7 billion in endowment funds plus another $1.7 billion in accumulated surpluses and operating funds, some of which is actively managed.

NUS, whose endowment fund totalled $1.45 billion as at March 2008 and over $900 million in other funds, declined to provide any figures or official comment, saying only that its annual report will be released later this month.

An NTU spokesman said that 'like most universities, the NTU endowment fund was similarly negatively affected by the decline in the financial markets', but did not give specific details of its performance in the year to March, or in the eight months since. NTU has about $900 million in its endowment fund.

March marked the nadir of the financial crisis and most asset prices have rebounded strongly since then. SMU's Mr Teo told BT that some of the reported losses were unrealised, marked to market figures and that on a total returns basis, its invested funds have gained 17-18 per cent since then.

'Since March 2009, the portfolio has recovered significantly to almost pre-crisis level,' he said, or roughly to its value in August and September 2008. But he did not disclose the size of the investment portfolio or the dollar value of the recovery.

Unlike the US universities, which have been slashing payrolls and cutting back on expenditure, Singapore's are largely publicly funded and rely less on income from their endowments.

'The current operating needs of the university are funded mainly by programme-generated revenues and government funding,' said SMU's Mr Teo. 'We have not drawn on the investment income of the endowment fund or accumulated surpluses,' he said, adding that the losses will have no impact on academic programmes, research funding and capital expenditures.

Its endowment also benefited last year from higher donations - including matching government grants, it raised $56.8 million, up almost 90 per cent from the previous year.

The NTU spokesman said that the university did not depend on its endowment for 'a significant portion of our operations, but we are mindful that the expectation for our endowment to contribute more towards our operations will likely increase in the future'.