Algoma University working with lower cash surplus this year

Algoma University doesn’t have nearly as much surplus cash on hand this year, but expects that will change due to a projected increase in student enrolment.

According to a draft financial statement for the 2017-2018 fiscal year, the university reported a surplus of $508,945.

That’s more than $400,000 less than 2016-2017 surplus, which was a little over $920,000.

Robert Battisti, vice president of finance and operations at Algoma University, says that a drop in student fees factored into the decrease in surplus.

In 2016-2017, student fees brought in more than $10.2 million for Algoma University - but in 2017-2018, revenues generated from student fees were just over $9.2 million.

In all, revenues from student fees alone dropped by more than $985,000 for this year, when compared to 2016-2017.

Battisti told SooToday that Algoma University is anticipating an increase in student enrolment in the near future, which should help to boost the school’s surplus.

He says that much of that increase can be attributed to increased enrolment at the newly launched School of Business and Economics, in addition to ongoing growth at the university’s Brampton campus.

“When we did our budget for this year, we had enrolment at about 1,080,” Battisti said. “Our new forecast for FTEs is 1,205.”

“So that is a positive indication of where we’ll be.”

There have been fluctuations in this year’s financial statement when compared to the previous year’s, including a spending increase of more than $320,000 in advertising and communications due to increased marketing efforts by the university.

Meanwhile, repairs and maintenance costs went down by approximately $400,000 for this academic year.

The university also saw an increase in terms of incoming government grants, much of which can be traced back to a one-time grant for roughly $836,000.

Battisti says that if the projected enrolment increases come to fruition, the university will have to look at increased spending on support services and infrastructure, such as the library, the George Leach Centre department and student services.  

“If we’re looking at increasing our enrolment, we need to look at our infrastructure here on the campus, and Timmins and Brampton as well,” he said.

After initially projecting a 2.7 per cent decline in student enrolment for the 2018-2019 academic year back in April, Algoma University is now projecting a 8.7 per cent increase in enrolment from last year.