The University of Sydney made more last year from fees and charges “principally from overseas students” than the Feds kicked in, according to a new analysis by Frank Larkins, a go-to guy on university governance.
Professor Larkins (Uni Melbourne) reports Uni Sydney received 30 per cent of 2023 income from the federal government, compared to 47.2 % from fees. It is in an addition to his long-running look at the books of the Big (as in $billions) Five, Monash U and the universities of Melbourne, New South Wales, Queensland and Sydney.
Overall, the Five were still in recovery from Covid’s impact on income last year, with Sydney and Melbourne in surplus, just, and the others reporting small deficits.
The high impact outlay was increased spending on staff, up $1bn, across the Five on 2021, to $7.44bn. However as a proportion of total outlays, staff costs were generally marginally up or down. Professor Larkins attributes this to the impact of pandemic-response staff cuts.
Uni Sydney delivered on its’ reputation as the national pay leader, spending 58.6 % of revenue on staff in 2022 and 58.3 % last year, at the top end of the public university range.
Uni Sydney is especially exposed to a loss of fee income, notably compared to Uni Queensland, which earns 30.9 % of income from this stream. Even Uni Melbourne, Sydney’s traditional comparator, is more balanced -with 35.7 % from fees and charges and 36 % from government assistance.
However, all-up the Five are increasingly reliant on internationals. In 2021 government assistance was 41 per cent of income, dropping to 38 per cent last year. Fees and charges increased from 34 per cent to 37 per cent.
“Policies to reduce the intake of international student will impact adversely on the cashflow position of all these universities and several other institutions in the higher education system,” the ever-understated Larkins warns.
