Universities post $451m operating surplus despite pandemic

Australian universities have defied a precipitous fall in revenue from international students to bank an operating surplus of close to half a billion dollars.

Education Minister Alan Tudge. Picture: Gary Ramage

Australian universities have ­defied a precipitous fall in revenue from international students to bank an operating surplus of close to half a billion dollars, a Senate ­estimates hearing has heard.

After the onset of the pandemic forced learning online, campuses were deserted, forcing universities to shed thousands of staff to offset the loss of international students, with reports estimating tertiary ­institutions might lose more than $2 billion in revenue.

A Senate education and ­employment estimates hearing on Thursday, however, heard the ­financial plight of tertiary institutions had not been as dire as widely perceived.

Department of Education, Skills and Employment deputy secretary Rob Heferen said data obtained from annual reports demonstrated, in the aggregate, Australian universities had an ­operating surplus of $451 million in the 2020-21 financial year.

There was significant variance across different universities, Mr Heferen said, with “very healthy” balances at Victorian universities, University of Western Australia and Sydney University.

Monash had an operating surplus of $267 million while University of Melbourne also reported a $178 million surplus.

Other universities had reported significant losses, with RMIT and Swinburne posting deficits of $79 million and $36 million ­respectively.

“There are clearly difficulties going on, and the loss of inter­national students is a significant hit, quite a few per cent of their revenue,” Mr Heferen said. “But clearly some universities responded very well – they’ve probably contained their expenses.”

The figures came as federal Education Minister Alan Tudge told a Universities Australia conference that the impact on international student enrolment hadn’t been as severe as expected.

“I looked at the most recent figures last night, and they show that international student enrolments at university are down only 11 per cent at this point in time compared to the same point in time in 2019,” Mr Tudge said on Thursday.

“And now with international students comprising about 27 per cent of all university revenue, that means … you’ve had a loss of about 3 per cent of revenue compared to 2019 figures.”

He acknowledged that the fin­ancial impact of low international student enrolments would be drawn out over several years.

With Australia’s borders likely to remain closed until 2022 and pilot programs to return inter­national borders stalling, Universities Australia had estimated the sector would lose $2 billion in revenue in the coming financial year.