Universities’ finances worse than they appear, report says

New Zealand universities’ finances are worse than they appear, according to a commercially sensitive Tertiary Education Commission briefing paper, writes John Gerritsen for RNZ.

The March briefing, provided to RNZ under the Official Information Act, classified two universities as high risk and cast doubt on sector forecasts of net profits in the next two years. It also warned a drop in capital spending could cause some universities’ facilities to become substandard or even unusable.

The report said the sector’s NZ$138 million (US$86 million) surplus in 2023 was driven by one-off gains and increased trust fund valuations which hid an underlying deficit of NZ$66 million. “We consider this is more reflective of performance from core operations and the pressure that the sector is facing,” the report, for Tertiary Education Minister Penny Simmonds, said.
Full report on the RNZ site