It was the lowest return since 2012.

CNBC reports.

US college endowment returns sink to 2.4% in fiscal 2015

U.S. college and university endowments earned an average return of 2.4 percent after fees in the fiscal year ended in June, their lowest return since fiscal 2012 and a sharp drop from the 15.5 percent they earned in fiscal 2014, according to a study released on Wednesday.

The annual Nacubo-Commonfund Study of Endowments, based on data from 812 schools, found that schools put more than half of their investments into so-called alternative strategies, including venture capital, private equity and hedge funds.

In fiscal 2015, alternative strategies earned only a 1.1 percent return, far less than the 12.7 percent they earned the year before.

Within the group, venture capital investments were the most lucrative, yielding a 15.1 percent return, while so-called marketable alternative strategies, including hedge funds, inched up only 2.7 percent.