CQUniversity feels full force of Covid losing $22M in revenue

A new report released by the Queensland Audit Office has revealed the extent of the financial damage on revenue incurred by CQUniversity. See the findings here.

Despite having a loss of more than $20 million in the last financial year, one of regional Queensland’s biggest universities says it’s showing “promising signs of recovery”.

A new financial audit report on Queensland’s public universities and grammar schools was released by the Queensland Audit Office last month, which showed the financial damage inflicted by the pandemic in the last financial year.

The QAO is the independent auditor of the Queensland public sector, including local governments, and provides “professional audit services” which include audit opinion on the accuracy and reliability of the financial statements of public sector entities.

The auditor also provides those entities with insights on their financial performance, risk, and internal control.

The report says four of the state’s seven public universities, which includes CQUniversity, budgeted for a loss in 2021.

However of those four, CQUniversity was the only one to actually make a loss.

According to the data in the report, the tertiary school incurred an operating loss of $22 million, compared to $40.8 million the previous year.

However, despite this, CQUniversity performed better than budgeted.

The report also says prior to 2020 CQUniversity had the “highest reliance” on international course income and continues to be the hardest hit but international border closures during the pandemic.

A report released by the Queensland Audit Office has revealed the millions in revenue that was lost by CQUniversity with the closure of international borders during Covid.

The data says the university’s international student revenue decrease by $75.5 million in 2021, compared to $53.7 million the year before.

However the decrease in revenue was offset by increases from other revenue sources such as domestic students and grants from the Australian Government, which resulted in an overall decrease of $45.6m in revenue.

The loss of international student revenue was felt across the country, but was higher in the 2021 financial year due to borders being closed for a full 12 months.

“In 2021, total revenue recorded by the university sector from international students decreased by $186.7 million (13.2 per cent) (2020: $134.1 million – 8.7 per cent), due to the ongoing impacts of COVID-19,” the report says.

“There was a greater impact this year due to a full 12 months of international border closure. This was mitigated last year, as some students enrolled in courses were already in the country when travel restrictions came into effect.”

CQUniversity vice-president for Corporate and Student Services Narelle Pearse said despite the financial losses, signs of recovery were “promising”, but it would take a number of years to return to pre-Covid student numbers.

“The loss forecasted and reported was as a direct result of the ongoing international border restrictions throughout 2021 which saw a significant reduction in income revenue generated from international education delivery,” she said.

“It is important to remember that international borders did not reopen for students until mid-December last year. This impacted the University’s financial position across both 2020 and 2021 and even though borders are now reopened, and we are seeing promising signs of recovery, we will not see an immediate return to pre-Covid student numbers as this will take a number of years.”

So far this year the number of international student enrolments have been more than three times higher than the university’s initial forecasting.

Ms Pearse said so far this year international enrolments at CQU were more than three times higher than the university’s initial forecasting.

“Obviously, this is a step in the right direction when it comes to sector recovery, but it is important to remember that the pandemic had far reaching impacts and we must continue to operate in a financially responsible way as the recovery continues,” she said.

“As mentioned above we will not see an immediate return to pre-Covid student numbers as this will take several years.”

As well as the financial state of the universities, the report also noted that all universities needed to work on their cyber security.

“While the entities are continually improving the security of their systems, the risk of cyber attacks continues to increase,” the report says.

“The sensitive nature of information the entities hold about students and research makes them an attractive target. In response to this evolving risk, we have expanded our testing and identified more weaknesses.

“Given how much entities rely on their information systems, they all need to strengthen their security.”

Ms Pearse said online security was something that was taken “very seriously” at CQUniversity as it was now recognised as one of the “major risks for all businesses”.

“CQU already has tools, systems, and processes in place to address the priority areas highlighted in the report, and we invest heavily in systems and cyber infrastructure,” she said.

“We also have dedicated resources who are responsible for our online security and safety.

“Cyber security is a very complex area with hackers employing increasingly sophisticated tactics. This requires us to be vigilant at all times.

“We promote cyber security awareness to staff and students and also work hard to ensure we have plans for critical incidents and recovery in the event of a cyber-attack.”