Tuition hikes help U of S finish year in the black

Increase adds $11.1M to university coffers

The University of Saskatchewan’s decision to raise tuition by almost five per cent last year amid growing enrolment netted the institution an extra $11.1 million, which helped push it back into the black.

Tuition and fees brought in $158 million last year, around 15 per cent of the $1.08 billion in total revenues the university reported collecting.

The largest chunk of that was $480.1 million in provincial grants.

Over the same period, the university spent $1.01 billion, of which just over $567.6 million went to employee salaries and benefits. Its next-largest expenditure was $206 million on operations, according to its 2018-19 financial report.

While higher revenues resulted in the university finishing the year with a $65.6 million surplus compared to the $22.1 million deficit reported at the end of the 2017-18 fiscal year, its financial reserves, drained in recent years, remain low.

University policy dictates that unrestricted reserves be maintained at between 1.5 and six per cent of total expenditures — roughly $15 to $60 million. However, the $6.9 million in unrestricted reserves last year works out to 0.6 per cent.

That represents an increase from the $2.5 million the U of S had banked at the end of 2017-18, but well below the highest reserve total in its history — $243.4 million, reported at the end of the 2014-15 fiscal year.

Those funds disappeared amid a series of operating grant cuts and lack of increases handed down by the provincial government in a succession of budgets, a financial reality that forced the university to make cuts of its own.

The university’s cuts included $21.8 million involuntary buyouts issued in 2017-18, which, according to the university’s latest financial report, helped shave $19.1 million from salaries and benefits.

The U of S has significantly more money in reserves restricted for various specific purposes.

Earlier this year, some members of the university council expressed frustration the province has expected the university to cover shortfalls by dipping into its reserves, depleting them in the process.

At that meeting, provost Anthony Vannelli said the province did not understand how a university works or what its reserves are for, and that he and others were working to improve that understanding.

“The government now understands that more. Do they understand it 100 per cent? We’re still working on that,” Vannelli said then.

The university declined to make anyone available for an interview on Thursday; the government likewise declined a request for an interview with Advanced Education Minister Tina Beaudry-mellor.

“In an organization as large as (the university), it is necessary to hold some funds in reserve for contingency, which allows us to deliver on our teaching, learning and research mission,” U of S vice-president of finance Greg Fowler said in a prepared statement.

“All post-secondary institutions are expected to be efficient with the use of public money. Reserve funds will fluctuate as they are utilized for their intended purposes,” Beaudry-mellor said in a statement.

Tuition at the U of S increased an additional 3.4 per cent this year.

The university’s financial results include the accounts of five affiliated entities, including the Canadian Light Source and a numbered corporation used for real estate matters.