UBC’s Board of Governors has approved a balanced core operating budget of
$341.6 million for 1996-97 as the university enters the new fiscal year with an
accumulated operating debt reduced from $651,000 to $122,000 since the start of
1995-96.
“We have lived within our means,” said UBC President David Strangway. “Our only
debt is associated with the construction of facilities for which we have a
known revenue source to pay the debt.”
Salaries and benefits of $274 million to faculty and staff have been budgeted
in the core general purpose operating budget (GPOF) — approximately $167.9
million for academics, $10.6 for student assistants and $93 million for staff.
Benefits amount to $35.5 million.
With the exception of a pay equity adjustment, there was no increase in the
provincial operating grant of $272.7 million which accounts for 80 per cent of
core operating income, or roughly a third of UBC’s total income from all
sources.
Projected increases due to known salary settlements and other commitments will
be covered by the offices of the vice-presidents who will each take a reduction
which, in the aggregate, amounts to 0.9 per cent of the core budget.
As in previous years, UBC continues to curb its spending more than most
Canadian universities on central administrative and general functions,
earmarking less than four per cent of its total expenditures for this
purpose.
Despite a tuition freeze for the current fiscal year, the admission of an
additional 1,000 undergraduates and first-year professional students in 1996-97
will generate about $2.3 million more in credit course fees over last year.
The increased enrolment is necessary to meet the provincial government’s
mandate to improve productivity by four per cent. In total, credit course
tuition is expected to contribute $57 million to the GPOF, or 15 per cent of
the core operating revenue.
In addition to the tuition freeze, which will continue through 1999, the
province has also rolled back fee increases for the Student Financial Aid Fund
and for the Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund.
New revenue is expected from all incoming graduate students who, beginning in
1996, will pay an annual fee for each registered year instead of a program fee,
and, in 1997, from international students paying full tuition.
The university will allocate an additional $2 million in recurring dollars in
1996-97 to the Outstanding Student Initiative Program which provides four-year
scholarships, each worth a potential $10,000 over the four years, to
exceptional high school students.
For the past several years, the GPOF has been divided into three distinct
categories: core GPOF, non-core GPOF and continuing studies.
Non-core income represents funds derived either from fee for services or
designated funds. Continuing Studies activities on campus are not subsidized
from the university’s core budget and Continuing Studies covers all of its
direct expenses as well as its share of the university’s administrative
infrastructure costs.
