Universities and schools put more money into alternative investments like hedge funds in fiscal 2008, researchers reported on Tuesday.

The Commonfund Institute, a group that polled 628 educational endowments on their investment tastes, found their appetite for alternatives increased slightly in fiscal 2008 after having fallen off modestly in fiscal 2007. The fiscal year runs through the end of June 2008.

"With public equity markets declining sharply," the researchers said, "the long-term trend for alternative asset strategies to capture a greater share of educational institutions’ investment portfolios continued in fiscal year 2008."

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Tags: alternative investments, appetite, commonfund institute, educational endowments, educational institutions, endowments, fiscal year, investment-portfolios, money, public equity, term-trend, universities