The Federal Government has released a report into the financial health of the country's universities, finding record surpluses being posted by Australia's higher education centres.

 

Minister for Tertiary Education, Senator Chris Evans, released the Finance 2010: Financial reports of Higher Education Providers.  It shows the operating surplus of Australia’s 39 universities increased to $1.95 billion in 2010, an increase of 8.1 per cent compared to the 2009 result.

 

Eighteen universities returned surpluses of more than $50 million.

 

Revenue for the sector increased from $19.9 billion in 2009 to $21.5 billion in 2010 – up 8.2 per cent.  Australian Government funding, including loans to students, increased by 8.9 per cent to $12.4 billion in 2010.

 

“Universities have shown strong financial growth since coming out of the global financial crisis, supported by major injections of Australian Government funding in response to the Bradley Review of Higher Education in 2009," Senator Evans said.

 

“What is remarkable is that this financial growth has occurred despite the well-documented slowdown in international education which started to bite in 2009”.

 

The report tday also shows in 2010, the total net assets in higher education increased to $37.6 billion, up by nearly $2.5 billion, or 7.1 per cent, from 2009. External borrowings increased to $1.9 billion, but the debt to equity ratio remains modest having increased by only 1 per cent to 33 per cent.

The full report can be found here