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Success creates budget challenges
24 October 2009
With the University’s financial year being January to December, we are now in the throes of budgeting for 2010. Meetings are being held with all 20 cost centres and as usual, the submissions are millions of dollars beyond our capacity, but with almost every cost centre believing their case is indisputable. I suppose it’s the same in every organisation, but this year there are particular challenges ahead that have to be carefully weighed.
Thankfully, the overriding feature of USC is its “remarkable success”, according to the Australian Universities Quality Audit agency. Growth has averaged 10 percent per annum since opening. We now have over 7,000 students and over 2,000 staff on the payroll.
In the new sectoral environment, with further projected growth, the University is on track to meet its 2021 target of around 15,000 students.
With rapidly increasing national teaching and research recognition, and growing international numbers, the future for USC looks really promising.
But this success also causes some pressures.
Our greatest challenge is attracting government funding for buildings of the scale and complexity that we must now have, especially for specialist areas in the sciences. These buildings are typically $30 million plus, and we have pulled out all the stops to secure additional funding for them. Staff and students are, understandably, increasingly demanding cutting-edge infrastructure for professional education programs.
Staff costs, however, demand most of our resources, and with student numbers soaring the way they are, high calibre academic staff are needed in greater number for existing and new programs.
Most of the growth monies we have received in the last two years have gone to enhance teaching and research capacity, but this year we have to address some of the academic support areas.
More students will need to be alerted to prospects of university study, hence a major marketing emphasis. More students will need more advice, hence student services and administration will need bolstering. More students want to learn more flexibly, hence ITS, in particular has strong claims for e-learning developments.
So growth and success do not come without problems and discriminating between the multiplicity of compelling cases for more funding is a difficult task, but one which will have to be completed within weeks, to present to the University Council for approval at its last meeting of the year.
Professor Paul Thomas AM is Vice-Chancellor and President at the University of the Sunshine Coast.