Sydney Uni made half a billion dollars last year. Others are in deficit

The University of Sydney recorded a surplus of more than $500 million last year, while smaller institutions around the state lost money as they struggled to attract domestic students.

Strong investment returns, philanthropy and international student revenue helped deliver Sydney University’s $545 million surplus. International students now make up 47 per cent of all undergraduates, according to the university’s annual report, tabled in state parliament on Friday.

The University of Sydney posted a surplus of half a billion dollars in 2024.Credit: Oscar Colman

A narrow majority of vice chancellors running the state’s universities were paid $1 million or more a year, annual reports show, including at Sydney University, where vice chancellor Mark Scott’s remuneration increased by about $150,000 to $1.3 million. The pay bump brings him into line with what his predecessor Michael Spence was paid.

Scott told staff that the university’s core activities of teaching and research recorded a loss, and the 2024 underlying operating result was a deficit of $69 million. He described the overall result as “strong” in an uncertain year.

“Philanthropic funding, which often comes with restrictions on how it can be spent, and an exceptional 15 per cent return on our investments drove this headline result,” he said.

The University of NSW pocketed a surplus of just over $200 million this year, thanks to better-than-expected international and domestic student enrolments, which a spokeswoman said was driven by the prestige associated with its high scores in international league tables.

“UNSW has seen unprecedented demand over the past couple of years, driven by our rise to 19th in the 2024 and 2025 QS World University Rankings, a concerted post-pandemic international recruitment rebuild strategy, and recent policy shifts in the UK and Canada,” a spokeswoman said.

“The global top 20 position reflects our strong academic offerings and growing reputation.”

Other universities are still grappling with large debts on their balance sheets, with some blaming a strong jobs market for driving less need for tertiary study.

The worst-performing university financially in NSW was the University of Technology, Sydney, which had a loss of $78 million, its third consecutive deficit. It was $42 million less compared with 2023.

Earlier this year, academics were told up to 400 heads would roll under a restructure while numerous executives have left the embattled institution. Similar redundancy plans are in place at other institutions.

The annual reports show six out of the state’s 10 universities were in deficit.

The strong financial positions of major universities such as the University of Sydney and the University of NSW have been driven by strong demand from international students from countries such as China.

To alleviate the disparity in financial prospects, in 2023 a special levy was proposed for those universities that could help pay for research or student housing, but it was labelled an “envy tax” by the country’s largest universities.

Two years on from that proposal, which was never implemented, incoming Universities Australia chair Professor Carolyn Evans said there were still the “haves and have-nots”. Regional universities in particular struggled to attract international students.

She said the university sector was focused on other solutions, such as needs-based funding for regional universities and particular equity groups, “to recognise that there are some universities that do some very heavy lifting in terms of equity and outcomes”.

“We really do need to work quickly and constructively with government to try and get the policy settings in place to turn that around,” she said.

“We do have to more fairly balance between what students pay and what taxpayers pay into our higher education system.

“One of the things that is happening here is both staff and students are being further stretched, and when a university doesn’t have as much funding as it needs, then you are going to see large classes.

“You are going to see staff [reductions], and we are seeing that across quite a number of universities, and it’s not fair that hard-working staff, or students who are looking to turn their lives around, should continue to bear the brunt of this.”

Numerous universities across the state recorded a deficit last year, but many have managed to record significantly smaller ones in the years since the coronavirus pandemic.

That included Charles Sturt University, which has campuses across regional NSW. It recorded a deficit of $44 million.

“The university operated within a challenging economic environment in 2024, shaped by ongoing inflationary pressures, the cost-of-living crisis, and geopolitical tensions,” its annual report noted.

“The combination of these factors, along with low unemployment rates, continued to temper demand for tertiary education. This resulted in a decline in domestic student enrolments across the sector and led the government to introduce changes such as Higher Education Loan Program debt relief.”

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