Income
Income from tuition fees is our largest source of income, but it only makes up around half of our total income. The rest comes from grants from the Office for Students, research grants from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the European Commission, and other income which includes things like accommodation and catering income, investments, and donations.
| Source of income | Income |
|---|---|
| Tuition fees | £173.6m |
| Funding council grants | £39.3m |
| Research | £37.2m |
| Residences, retail and catering operations | £25.1m |
| Donations | £2.3m |
| Other | £12.0m |
Expenditure
We use our income to pay for high-quality academic staff and provide facilities for research that has impact across the world.
Our expenditure also includes financing all the academic and student services that students use, including:
- the Library
- IT facilities
- student services
- teaching support
- sports and arts facilities
- bursaries and placements
- the buildings that all these services are housed in
We seek to achieve economy, efficiency and effectiveness in all our activities and this is embedded within our procurement and operating practices.
| What it is spent on | Expenditure |
|---|---|
| Academic departments | £114.0m |
| Academic services | £30.8m |
| Research | £25.0m |
| Premises | £42.4m |
| IAAPS land and buildings write down | £21.5m |
| Residences, retail and catering operations | £33.0m |
| Professional services | £17.9m |
| Student and staff facilities | £15.4m |
| General educational activities | £18.6m |
| Other | £2.9m |
Deficit
| Financial statements 2020/2021 | |
|---|---|
| Income | £289.5m |
| Expenditure | £321.5m |
| (Deficit) before gains and losses | (£32.0m) |
In the 2020/21 academic year, we incurred a deficit of £32.0m as reported in our Annual Report & Accounts.
It's important to remember that the University is a charity; it has no shareholders or owners that it has to pay money to. Throughout the crisis, we have maintained substantial cash and investment balances and have focused on cash flow from operating activities. We have invested £39.5m on capital expenditure as work continued on our two main capital projects, a new building for our School of Management and a facility for the Institute for Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems, throughout the year. As a result, our Net Debt reduced slightly by £1.3m to £62.6m though this remains lower than our expectations. Our cash and investment balances leave considerable scope for investment to support our new strategy. The financial strategy is based on generating enough operating cash flow to fund the investment in people and infrastructure that our strategy describes.
The deficit is principally due to the valuation of land and buildings. A write-down of £21.5m on our IAAPS facility reflects the difference in value between a bespoke high specification research facility and the market value of equivalent non-specialised space. Grant income of £39.2m will be recognised when the facility opens in summer 2022.
Find out what your tuition fees pay for.