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 seven 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.
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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.
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“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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