Annual reports and financial statements 2016-17 published
Primary page content
Goldsmiths, University of London today publishes its annual reports and financial statements for the year ended 31 July 2017.
The reports and statements show that the College is carefully managing its position within an uncertain context for the Higher Education sector, thanks to a rise in the number of students coming to Goldsmiths and work across campus to control costs and secure efficiencies.
The publication shows that total income grew by 10.4% to £114.8million, driven by a strong growth in tuition fee income as student numbers across all major categories increased.
At the same time total expenditure increased by 10.2% to £115.1 million, driven by growing staff costs to match student number increases.
The overall reported surplus was £236,000 – a broadly break-even financial performance – while the net cash inflow from operating activities was £10.9 million.
Director of Finance Ian Pleace said: “These figures show that everyone’s efforts to ensure our financial sustainability are working – something we must maintain with the coming years unlikely to be plain sailing financially.
“Our financial performance is well below Higher Education sector averages and it’s essential that we continue to focus on achieving a sustainable level of surplus and operating cash flow.
“Doing this means we can ensure that the innovation, work and spirit of Goldsmiths continues to thrive and that the institution will be able to overcome future financial challenges.”
Our main income sources are tuition fees, funding body grants, research grants and contracts and other income.
Some 72% of our income in 2016/2017 came from tuition fees.
Of the tuition fee income, some 56% came from Home/EU undergraduates, 14% from international undergraduates, 14% from Home/EU postgraduate taught, 11% international PG taught, 1% home EU PG research, 1% international PG research and 3% other.
Expenditure falls into four categories: staff costs, non-staff operating costs, capital expenditure and interest costs. The two biggest costs are staff costs and non-pay operating costs.
Staff costs
Our biggest cost is staff cost – with the university spending £69million on staff.
Of these staff costs, some 65% went on academic departments including administrative staff based in those departments, at £44.85million.
The remainder – £24.15million – was spent on central professional services departments.
Goldsmiths employs 1,201 Full-Time Equivalent staff, including 608 academics FTEs.
Non-pay operating costs
This includes scholarships and bursaries, which totalled £1.8million, as well as student placements costs, security, cleaning and maintenance costs, utilities like gas, electricity and water and library materials.
Also included in this is the block grant to Goldsmiths Students’ Union.
In 2016-17 the GSU received a grant and support totalling £931,000. In addition to this other support was provided to GSU by the College at an estimated cost of £500,000 - making the SU’s block grant and support in kind worth a combined £1.4m.