Image: Falmouth University in Facebook
Have you ever wondered how your university spends that £9,250?
Most university students that take undergraduate and postgraduate courses across the UK have to pay an annual fee of £9,250, which amounts to almost £28,000 at the end of the regular three years.
And whilst the majority of these students only think about these sums later in their careers when they begin to pay it back, most of them don’t know how their money is being spent by their respective institutions.
Falmouth University students now have a chance to understand exactly what that £9,000 goes towards.
A study released by the University and the Students’ Union aims to help all students, staff and key stakeholders understand how Falmouth University generates revenues and how the money is spent, in an effort to increase transparency.
The publication takes into account information based on the annual return to the Higher Education Statistics (HESA) and it shows all the key financial statistics from the year 2020/21.
The numbers show that the University’s total income last year was £58.8M and that 82% of that same value (£48.1M) comes strictly from student fees.
In a later part of this study and perhaps the most relevant, these fees are separated into two sections – Undergraduate and Postgraduate Fees – which show the specific segments the £9,250 are allocated towards.
On average, £3,840 and £3,580 are spent on teaching and research for Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses respectively, this means that more than a third of a yearly fee goes towards lecturers, technicians, and course admins, whilst, for example, only 6-9% of the sum is invested into things like IT support, technology and events.
After consulting the data, some students feel like some investments should be done differently.
Ben Garland, 3rd Year Sports Journalism student, said:
“When I read the study, it just surprised me because I feel like they are not allocating enough of our money into technical resources.
“Our course is highly technical, and this year we got told that we had to pay for our editing software individually, which is quite expensive. It is a very important tool for our work and I feel like it should be funded by our fees.”
The rest of the study divulges, with full transparency how the students’ fees are allocated into the different segments.
So, what about you, do you feel like your money is being spent the right way, or should there be any changes? Join the debate on our social media platforms @Truthfal, and take a look at the entire study document here:
https://issuu.com/falmouthuni/docs/falmouth_university_public_finance_figures-1/2?ff
