Mark Mobius, adviser to Franklin Templeton and the most high-profile advocate of emerging markets investment, has received a sharp rebuff from one of the largest institutional investors in the US.

Harvard College's multi-billion dollar endowment fund last week took steps to fire Templeton as manager of the $160m (€165m) Templeton China World Fund, where Harvard holds just over 30%. Mobius, a value investor famous for travelling the world by Gulfstream in search of investments, has been adviser to the US quoted fund for nearly 10 years.