Annual Report and Financial Statements

Understanding our finances

We are committed to ensuring transparency in our financial reporting and helping our community and stakeholders in gaining a clearer understanding of our financial situation.  

We have highlighted key information about our finances on this page, with the full details published in our Annual Report and Financial Statements 2023-2024 (PDF).

Sharing information clearly to encourage understanding is particularly important at a time when universities are facing a range of financial challenges, with the sector regulator the Office for Students projecting that seven out of 10 UK higher education organisations are at risk of operating in financial deficit.  

Our accounts

Every year we publish our financial accounts, in the Annual Report and Financial Statements. This is published in December and details the financial activity of the college in the previous academic year. 

The financial information published in December 2024 reports on our position during the financial year that began on 1 August 2023 and ended on 31 July 2024. 

Our Annual Report and Financial Statements are independently audited and we are legally required to publish them.

As with all higher education providers registered with the government, we also have a duty to the Office for Students to demonstrate that we are in financial good health so we can continue operating as a university. 

Finance headlines

There are three key factors which inform our headline financial position: 

• The money which comes into Goldsmiths, or income
• The money which goes out of Goldsmiths, or expenditure
• The resulting balance – whether we are in surplus or deficit

For 2023-24 the three factors were: 

• Income: £138 million
• Expenditure: £136.4 million
• Balance: an underlying surplus of £1.6 million

An underlying surplus of £1.6 million means we ended the financial year with a modest amount of money which will be reinvested to support Goldmiths and our ongoing activities.

We finished in this position as a result of a number of factors including initial savings made by the Transformation Programme. Without these savings we would have finished the year in a negative deficit position.  

The underlying surplus excludes certain one-off or volatile items that tend to distort the position. These include a credit in connection with the valuation of the USS pension scheme of £41.9 million, one-off staff restructuring costs of £6.4 million and other gains of £0.3 million. After taking these items into account in our Financial Statements, the reported result is a surplus of £37.4 million.

Income and underlying expenditure details 

Where our money comes from and how we spend it is illustrated in these charts. 

How we spend our money

People are at the heart of all the College’s activities, and our biggest expenditure is on staff. This includes paying wages, contributing to pensions and paying social security costs. 

Our staff expenditure excluding pension movements and restructuring costs totalled £90 million – making up two-thirds of our overall spending. Of this, £49.9 million was spent on academic staff and £40.1 million on professional and technical staff who work in academic departments.  

A breakdown of staff expenditure excluding pension movements and restructuring costs shows that Goldsmiths spent: 

• £71.5 million on salaries 
• £11.2 million on employer pension contributions 
• £7.3 million on social security costs

Goldsmiths has 1,367 full-time equivalent staff, with 671 of these colleagues Teaching and Research staff and 696 Administrative and other which includes colleagues who work in academic departments.  

The median average salary at Goldsiths is £45,406. 

The Warden's salary is £257,965 and the total emoluments of the Warden are £261,141. This gives the Warden’s salary a pay ratio of 5.7 to the median salary at Goldsmiths. 

Other types of spending

In addition to spending on staff Goldsmiths must meet a range of other costs related to the running and operation of the university. This includes:   

• £18.2 million on premises – this includes the management of the estate, maintenance of buildings, the depreciation (reduction in value) of buildings and resources due to wear and tear from being used, and heating and lighting bills. Cleaning and security costs are also included  
• £8.2 million on halls of residence, including depreciation and third-party halls used by our students, and catering and conferences 
• £5 million on capital expenditure. Capital expenditure was largely on a maintenance basis only, comprising items such as safety compliance works and IT and AV equipment replacement

We also spend significant amounts of money in providing direct support to our communities, excluding the costs of staff these include:  

• £2.5 million on student bursaries and scholarships 
• £1.8 million for Goldsmiths Students’ Union – made up of £1.1 million in block grant as well as in-kind support, accommodation, sports facilities and use of the IT network at an estimated cost of £0.7 million 
• £6.4 million on other student and staff facilities. This covers direct student support services, for example the Student Centre, Accommodation Office and Careers Service, along with staff support facilities such as the Staff Development Unit and Occupational Health Service. It does not include administrative support such as People and Organisational Development or Registry

Importance of cash flow

An important part of the financial operations of any university is the ability to access cash to meet day-to-day running costs including paying for services and goods and paying staff. 

As part of our commitments to the Office for Students we are required to demonstrate that we have sufficient cash reserves to continue operations. If the sum of our cash balance and unused credit facilities is projected to fall below the 30-days’ worth of expenditure – meaning the College would exhaust its cash reserves within 30 days without additional income – we are obligated to report this situation to the Office for Students. 

In recent years we have focused on improving our cash balance to give us greater protection against financial shocks given continuing uncertainty for our sector and give us headroom to invest in students’ learning. On 31 July 2024, cash balances stood at £41.3 million.