Authority is hereby granted to the State Board of Education and the board of trustees of all state institutions respectively, where education is a part of the program of the institution, to invest and reinvest endowment funds and funds held for investment, subject to all the terms, conditions, limitations and restrictions imposed by the laws of Alabama upon domestic life insurance companies in the making and disposing of their investments; and subject to like terms, conditions, limitations and restrictions, each such board shall have full power to hold, purchase, sell, assign, transfer and dispose of any of the securities and investments in which any of the funds shall have been invested, as well as the proceeds of said investments and any moneys belonging to said funds; provided, that all rights and privileges of investment and management of funds heretofore granted or vested in said boards shall continue to vest therein.