Dear colleagues,
An important milestone in the University’s financial recovery was reached last week with the University Court approving the budget for the University for next year and 2025/26. The Court-approved budget now supersedes the Financial Recovery Plan.
The budget was a main topic of discussion at this week’s meeting of the Financial Recovery Group, which received a presentation on the budget by our Chief Financial Officer Mark White. This provides details of the budget agreed by Court.
Here I would like to highlight just a few key points that underpin the budget:
- Major drive to grow our income once more
- Near-freeze on staff recruitment continues
- Based on current projections, no requirement for compulsory redundancies
- Reshaping Professional Services, and
- Reshaping Academic activity
The approved budget predicts a significant reduction in the underlying deficit to £6.7m in the University’s financial year 2024/25 which begins in August and £2.1m the following year.
Extra income will be generated by:
- Expanding provision of online courses
- Delivering more education overseas (transnational education)
- Adapting our portfolio of degree programmes to ensure they are more closely aligned to student and employer demand
- Continued growth in research income
- Scaling up fundraising
- Academic commercialisation such as consultancy work and spin-out companies
- Professional services commercialisation, notably income generated through our estate, and
- Realisation of some of the insightful initiatives you have suggested which are under active consideration e.g. growing summer school short courses
The Financial Recovery Group discussed and agreed the importance of regular monitoring of income across all these areas. Arrangements will be put in place to allow the Group to do this and ensure that our financial recovery remains on track.
You can see the agendas and minutes of the Financial Recovery Group on the Group’s webpage.
The next key financial milestone for the University’s budget will be on-campus student recruitment in September. I am grateful to staff right across the University working tirelessly to maximise our student intake through this key conversion phase, as well as all the work that is ongoing to grow income across the full range of our activity.
The Financial Recovery Group is also strongly focused on the impact on individuals and wider teams of the financial recovery process, including the departure of many colleagues across the University. This was also the subject of a very constructive meeting with our campus Trade Unions last week. We have agreed that our update next week will focus on staff wellbeing, and what we can all do as a community to support each other. I look forward to updating you on that next week.
Best wishes,
Karl
Karl Leydecker
Senior Vice-Principal