CORRECTION

An Associated Press story on Page 4A Thursday misstated the size of Harvard University's endowment. The correct figure is $34.6 billion.

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New figures on university endowments confirm it's not just the haves and have-nots in academia these days. Beyond the great majority of colleges, there's a growing group of the newly rich schools and -- at the top of the heap -- a tiny cadre of ultra-wealthy institutions.

The latest endowment figures from NACUBO, a college business officers' group, highlight the growing prosperity but also the stratification among elite universities. That development is creating tension.

There are now 76 colleges and universities with endowments that have passed $1 billion -- including 16 new members of that club, such as Georgetown and the universities of Oklahoma and Missouri.

But five at the top all have nearly $6 billion more than any school outside that group: Harvard ($35.6 billion), Yale ($22.5 billion), Stanford ($17.2 billion), Princeton ($15.8 billion) and the University of Texas system ($15.6 billion). The survey marks the end of the most recent fiscal year, which at most schools ended June 30, so the numbers don't reflect the recent downturn in the stock market.

Among them, Harvard's endowment -- the largest overall -- expanded by an amount last year that's more than Ivy League rival Cornell has altogether. Princeton now has more than $2 million in the bank for every student. Stanford raised nearly $1 billion during its last reported fiscal year alone.

There is a "tremendous" difference in wealth from the schools at the top to those below them, said Ronald Ehrenberg, an expert on higher education economics at Cornell. "It falls off very, very quickly."

The figures come at a time when the advantages of that small group of super-rich schools have been a contentious topic.

There has been growing criticism from the public and some in Congress that the wealthiest schools should be dipping deep into their savings to hold down prices. But when Harvard and Yale recently announced they would do so by boosting aid for families earning well into six figures, they were sharply criticized.

Other schools complained they would be forced to keep up by spending more on aid for wealthier students and less to help students who need it most.

There's also rising resentment in higher education over faculty raiding. Wealthy colleges offer salaries that poorer schools can't possibly match.

It's not just the very richest schools -- prosperous public universities raid poorer peers, too. Some argue there's a public benefit when talented scholars gather in one place and collaborate. But there's also a cost when the schools that educate the most people lose their stars. Harvard now pays full professors on average about $177,000, compared to about $106,000 at the average public research university.

"The publics lag woefully behind the prestigious privates not only in terms of faculty salaries, but in terms of their ability to attract the best graduate students and pay them competitive stipends," said Mark Yudof, chancellor of the University of Texas.

Yudof says he doesn't mind competition, and his system is better off than most -- its $15.6 billion endowment is the largest by far of any public university.

But for a big university, the money doesn't go as far. Texas' funds support 300,000 students, more than 10 times the number at schools such as Harvard and Yale.