Uni Queensland had a good 2023, way better than 2022. The $123m operating result for the university’s consolidated account, compares to 2022, when investments went backwards by $220m, a major contributor to a $310m loss.
However, the university has had three flat revenue years from enrolments – with more to come as slow student starts flow through the system.
Overall numbers (55,400) last year were down on 2020. And while internationals have bounced around in a 2,000 range, last year’s 16,909 was down on the 2021 peak of 17,026.
But while the major revenue streams stayed the same, the current of staff costs was strong. Academic FTE was stable last year, at 2,988 but professional numbers were up from 4,000 in 2021 to 4,500 last year. Total employee expenses for the consolidated university were up 6 per cent, to $1.332bn.
James Cook U chancellor Ngaire Brown says financially the university has “had to proceed with some caution.” It shows in the annual report. The consolidated result last year was a $39m loss, on consolidated income of $616m – compared to nearly $50m, on revenue of $529m in 2022. However $22m of last year’s loss was due to the Australian Taxation Office rejecting a franking credit refund of $22.8m on the dividend to the university from the share of the sale of Education Australia. Just about every public university was clobbered by the ATO over this and many listed the loss in ’22 reports however JCU has lodged an objection.
“Navigating the reduction in staffing has been challenging for all, but we are now closer to a sustainable staffing level for the size and scale of our business,” VC Simon Biggs states. JCU reports staff spending for 2023 at just under half total outlays. JCU only reports student numbers (heads: 21,207, EFT’s: 15,147) for ’23 but evidently there are aspiration for growth. According to Professor Briggs, “curricula renewal and marketing improvements” are “expected to enhance the effectiveness of our approach.”
There’s bad news and good news in Griffith U’s annual report. Despite the net operating loss of $66.7m, the university reports that it remains financially stable. It follows a $69.7m loss in 2022. A substantial swag of last year’s result is due to a $65m increase in employee expenses. It is due, the annual report explains, “to a range of factors, including higher staff numbers, enterprise bargaining increases and higher oncosts.”
Griffith U went backwards on enrolments last year, with 30,900 bachelor degree students, down from 33,500 in 2022 and 36,600 in 2021.
