Between 2013 and 2017, Trinity Business School more than doubled the amount of money it spends, according to figures obtained by The University Times.
In 2013/14, the actual expenditure of the school was €3,923,003. Its expenditure up until August of this year is already at €8,208,056, showing a 110 per cent increase since 2013/14.
The expenditure figures, revealed after a freedom of information request by The University Times, represent money that comes from core college funding and does not include money that schools may receive from outside sources such as loans or philanthropic donations.
The figures put the Trinity Business School well ahead of most of College’s 24 schools when it comes to expenditure, with the spending figures for the last few years outstripping some of Trinity’s biggest schools, including the School of Natural Sciences and the School of Computer Science and Statistics.
The Trinity Business School has been the focal point of Trinity’s philanthropy campaign in recent years and the school has grown over the years to become one of the largest in College.
A few years ago, the business school’s spending was eclipsed by nearly a dozen Trinity schools. Now, while spending has increased in the Trinity Business School, the vast majority of schools ’ have seen their spending decline or remain the same.
For instance, in 2013/14 the business school’s budget was significantly below that of the School of Histories & Humanities and the School of Language, Literature & Cultural Studies. Now, Trinity Business School is beaten only by the School of Medicine and the School of Engineering when it comes to expenditure.
Speaking to The University Times, Andrew Burke, the Dean of Trinity Business School, said that the increase in expenditure can be put down to the fact that “the school has more than doubled in size over that period”. In the last two and a half years, the school has seen a big increase in faculty, rising from 21 to 44.
The College has turned its focus to the business school in recent years, with the development of a new €82.5 million building for the school beginning in 2015 and a completion date of 2019 now planned. A significant proportion of this came from philanthropic donations.
In recent months, an increasing number of new appointments and scholarships have been announced in the race to make the school an internationally top-performing business school. Burke explained that “it’s not all about the money”. “Trinity needs a world-class business school to have a world-class university, so that’s really I think the key part. If we didn’t go on this growth strategy, we would just be completely left behind”, he said.
Burke admitted to often being left “frustrated” when people talk about the investment in the business school: “It sounds like money is being taken from other parts of the university and given to the business school whereas that’s not the case.” The school’s income is largely self-financed, according to Burke. This means that they “don’t actually get an extra budget allocation unless we bring in extra income”.
The school’s success in recent years is therefore largely “self-generated”. The school must cover its own costs while also giving money back to the College, which is then passed on to other areas within the university, according to Burke. He explained that this is “not too unusual” as “most business schools in the top universities will generate a surplus that is used to fund areas that find it difficult to break even”.
Besides the leap in expenditure demonstrated by the business school, the overall expenditure of Trinity’s three faculties has also increased and is on track to do the same this year. While the expenditure of individual schools didn’t necessarily increase – some recorded a decrease in expenditure. The spending of all three faculties increased between 2014/15 and 2015/16 by €2,917,783.
Burke explained that the growth of the school has also resulted in them offering more services to students to keep up with international competitors. According to Burke, they have had to “vamp up the size of our careers team and various other services for graduate students” in line with other global business schools.
The schools in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences saw the biggest increase with expenditure up €1,915,315 between 2013 and 2016. Within this group of schools, the business school saw the largest increase. The schools in the Faculty of Engineering, Maths and Science recorded the lowest change in expenditure, with only an increase of €1,392,189 between 2013 and 2016. Schools in the Faculty of Health Sciences saw its core expenditure increase by €1,588,037. So far this year, the schools in the Faculty of Health Sciences have spent the least out of all the faculties.
Speaking to The University Times, Ian Mathews, the College’s Chief Financial Officer, explained that the challenges Trinity currently faces “are very much around how to manage the College’s cost base”. The university is constrained by public-sector pay rates and pay determinations that see over 65 per cent of its expenditure going on pay, he said. Mathews explained that this restriction regarding employment conditions “limits your opportunity to do things in the short term”.
As for the other areas of expenditure, Mathews admitted that these are “very much subjective”, depending on the discipline. For a university that wants to be on the cutting edge of research, costs include buying equipment, energy and consumables, which are often expensive.
Last year, Trinity recorded a €9.4 million deficit. While a substantial figure, it was considerably lower than the €34 million deficit that was initially predicted for the year. At one point, questions were raised as to whether Trinity would have enough money to cover its day-to-day running operations.
The dramatic decrease between the deficit predicted and the one that actually happened was as a result of Trinity re-evaluating its investment properties and including gains made from investments.
The College has made a series of investments in a bid to decrease the deficit but is still waiting on these moves to pay off. From creating a commercialisation unit to a more concentrated effort to attract foreign students, Mathews and other senior College officials hope “that [this] level of investment is now starting to generate a return” and hope that it will continue into the future.
The news that core expenditure is increasing comes at a time when higher education is facing a funding crisis. With traditional revenue streams running dry, Trinity has been forced to look further afield to commercialisation and possible philanthropic donations in order to boost funding activities within the College.
