That put the University of Texas system in the No. 2 spot, ahead of Yale University, which saw its endowment climb from $20 billion to $24 billion.

Stanford University was ranked fourth with $21.4 billion in assets in its endowment, up 14.8 percent, while Princeton University came in fifth, up 15.4 percent to $20.9 billion.

The fact that there was an overall increase in longer-term returns may be even better news for higher education.

NACUBO's data indicated that three-year net returns of schools in the study averaged 9 percent, five-year returns averaged 11.7 percent and 10-year returns averaged 7.1 percent.

"A higher level of long-term returns enables them (the universities) to support their missions while remaining on a sound financial footing," NACUBO President and CEO John D. Walda said in a statement.

The survey also found that the outsourcing of investment management by the universities continues to grow, with 43 percent of respondents in 2014 saying that they have substantially turned to third parties for those services. That figure stood at 40 percent in 2013 and 38 percent the year before.

Use of consultants, on the other hand, was slightly down but still widely prevalent, with 82 percent of study respondents stating that they used consultants for investment management services in 2014, down from 85 percent in 2013. 

The study also indicated that risky investment strategies were continuing to fall out of fashion with schools investing their endowments. Fifty-seven percent of those schools studied reported employing risk limits on their portfolios, up from 50 percent last year.

"Institutions appear to be remaining vigilant with an eye to avoiding a repetition of their experience in the financial crisis of 2007-2009," Commonfund Institute Executive Director John S. Griswold said.