Massey University deficit shrinks with expenses down, grants up
Massey University is again facing a big deficit for the year, although so far its finances are not as bad as feared.
That is in part due to lower expenses, including salaries of staff made redundant.
The university’s latest finances, made public this week, show an operating deficit for the year so far to the end of March of $18.2 million – $6m better than expected.
It comes after a tough 2023 for Massey, when it declared a deficit of $45.5m and slashed courses and jobs, including major reductions to science, especially at its Albany campus in Auckland.
It also has campuses in Palmerston North and Wellington.
University vice-chancellor Jan Thomas said earlier this year about $19m of that deficit was for redundancy payments.
It followed a deficit of $8.8m in 2022, as the university sector continued to face a funding squeeze and declining student numbers. Highlighting the extent of the cuts, Checkpoint last week revealed 624 courses were “retired” this year, including 434 from sciences, 79 from business and 59 from humanities.
Just 66 new ones were created – the university had 3209 in total. Last year just 116 courses were cut and 54 added.
The notes for Massey’s year-to-date finances said the deficit was “mainly due to lower-than-expected expenses in all areas and slightly higher than budgeted government grants”.
“This was partially offset by lower student fees and research income.”
Expenses until the end of March were $126.8m, $21.6 lower than expected. Income, at about $120m, was $3.4m lower than budgeted due to lower student fees and research income.
Massey had previously declined to tell RNZ its enrolment numbers for 2024, but has now released them under the Official Information Act.
They showed at April 15 it had 14,525 full-time equivalent students, slightly down from 14,805 in 2023. In 2019 it had 18,835. Earlier this year, Thomas said she expected Massey to break even in 2026 and record a surplus in 2027.