News

A financial report released at the University Council meeting on 8 April has shown that the University of Otago held $1.66 billion in assets at the close of the 2013 financial year, an increase from the $1.63 billion in 2012. The greatest asset, recorded at $1.3 billion, was property, plant and equipment, followed by $852.7 million in buildings and $212.9 million in land.

The meeting revealed the University Group has set aside $277 million in financial assets, including cash, short-term deposits & shares, to contribute to their upcoming building program. Said to be worth more than $600 million, the project will begin “later this year and in 2015,” the Director of Financial Services Gavin Logie was recorded as saying at the meeting.

Most of the buildings, including a new School of Dentistry, are set to be on the University’s Dunedin campus. Chief Operating Officer John Patrick said at the council meeting, “I think over the next 10 years, the face of this campus is going to change quite dramatically.” He further commented that the build-up of extra money had been a “deliberate strategy” in order to attain the funds for the project.

David Lont, University of Otago accounting professor told the ODT “it is pretty remarkable that a university of our size has largely almost always been debt free and that we have been able to finance expansion from our operating budgets.” He added, “it’s a wonderful thing for the city to have a financially strong university, which students from outside want to come to.” Lont attributed the outcome to solid management.

The report also showed that the total income of the University in 2013 was $635.9 million, $217 million of which came from Government grants, $97 million of which came from domestic tuition fees, and $44 million of which came from international tuition fees. Vote Education mainly funded the Government grants, and includes funding received from the Government by way of the tertiary education student achievement component, which is based on forecast equivalent full-time student numbers and the funding category values of these EFTS. Last year 18,875 students were enrolled full-time at Otago.

The University also holds $20 million in investment income, of which $7.3 million came from interest from bank term deposits. Also of interest was the $590 million attributed to expenditure, of which $194 million was spent on academic salaries and $145 million was spent on general salaries. The University employed 3,754 full-time staff members last year.