Sta/Medr/09/2026: Finances of higher education institutions, August 2024 to July 2025

Introduction

This statistical release provides a summary of financial information submitted to the Higher Education Statistics Agency’s finance record by Welsh higher education institutions.

In March 2026, Medr published Financial sustainability of the higher education sector in Wales which provides a more in-depth assessment of the finances of the higher education sector in Wales. There are some differences between the figures in each report. This report includes the University of Wales as it submits data to the HESA finance record, while the financial sustainability report excludes this institution.

Income

Chart 1: Breakdown of income categories at all Welsh HE institutions, 2022/23 to 2024/25

Source: HESA Finance Table 1

The total combined income of Welsh higher education institutions was £1.90 billion in 2024/25. In both 2022/23 and 2023/24, it was £1.98 billion.

Tuition fees and education contracts accounted for £1.04 billion of income in 2024/25, making it the largest source of income. This was a 6% decrease from the 2023/24 of £1.11 billion.

Funding body grants was the only income category to have risen between 2023/24 and 2024/25, increasing by 3% from £276 million to £285 million. As well as funding from Medr, funding body grants can include funding for further education institutions within higher education groups, and some other UK government funding.

Research grants and contracts accounted for £237 million worth of income in 2024/25.

The remaining income categories all saw a decrease in 2024/25.

Expenditure

Note: the calculation of underlying expenditure in this release differs from the 2023/24 release in that technical non-cash accounting adjustments to defined benefit pension schemes are excluded from interest and other finance costs, in addition to staff costs. The 2023/24 release only excluded these from staff costs. This change has been made to align with standard practice in the sector and other Medr publications.

The HESA finance record does not collect restated figures for pension cost adjustments, so the originally submitted figures have been used.

Table 1: Comparison of expenditure types for all Welsh HE institutions, 2022/23 to 2024/25 (£M)

Expenditure type	2022/23 (£M)	2023/24 (£M)	2024/25 (£M)
Total expenditure	1,889	1,679	2,020
Underlying expenditure	1,945	2,056	2,026
Underlying operating expenditure	1,943	2,039	1,977

Sources: HESA Finance Table 1, Table 8 and Table 12.
(Table 1 contains the broad expenditure categories. Table 8 contains the pension adjustments to the ‘interest and other finance cost’ category in the ‘interest and other finance costs’ column, viewable when HESA cost centre group filter is ‘other expenditure’ and HESA cost filter is ‘pension cost adjustment’. Table 12 contains the changes to pension provisions and pension adjustments for ’staff costs’.)

Total expenditure, as reported in statutory accounts, includes both technical non‑cash pension adjustments and one‑off items such as fundamental restructuring costs. The pension adjustments are based on actuarial valuations of the pension schemes and can fluctuate significantly dependent on market value at the point of valuation. This can give a misleading picture of underlying costs.

Underlying expenditure removes technical non‑cash pension adjustments from staff costs and interest and other finance costs.

Underlying operating expenditure further excludes the cost of fundamental restructuring. As restructuring costs are one‑off by nature, they are not part of normal ongoing operations.

In 2024/25, underlying operating expenditure declined by 3% to £1.98 billion.

Chart 2: Breakdown of expenditure categories at Welsh HE institutions, 2022/23 to 2024/25

Sources: HESA Finance Table 1, Table 8 and Table 12.
(Table 1 contains the broad expenditure categories. Table 8 contains the pension adjustments to the ‘interest and other finance cost’ category in the ‘Interest and other finance costs’ column when HESA cost centre group filter is ‘other expenditure’ and HESA cost filter is ‘pension cost adjustment’. Table 12 contains the changes to pension provisions and pension adjustments for staff costs.)

Both staff costs (excluding technical non-cash changes to pension provisions and pension adjustments) and other operating costs declined in 2024/25. Staff costs were recorded at £1.1 billion in 2024/25; they declined by less than 1%.

Other operating costs declined by 8% to £681 million in 2024/25.

Underlying operating position

The underlying operating position is the surplus or deficit from core operational activities at universities. In this publication, it has been calculated by subtracting underlying operating expenditure (which excludes technical non-cash pension adjustments and one-off fundamental restructuring costs) from total income.

In 2024/25, Welsh universities collectively reported an operating deficit of £81 million. This deficit was £56 million in 2023/24. In 2022/23, there was an operating surplus of £40 million.

Data

Figures for 2024/25 are for the year ended 31 July 2025, with previous data years following the same pattern.

This release does not include data from the Open University in Wales, as the Open University only produces financial data on a UK wide basis. The University of Wales (central functions) has been included in this release, meaning that figures may vary slightly from Medr’s Financial sustainability of the higher education sector in Wales, March 2026 report, which did not include the University of Wales in its figures, as the University of Wales is not currently an awarding body for other institutions in Wales and has limited activity as a standalone entity. Further education or sixth form colleges and alternative providers of higher education are also excluded.

The HESA finance record permits providers to amend their figures for each year in the subsequent submission. This publication uses the most recently published figures. The 2023/24 figures will be those taken from the 2024/25 submission and may therefore differ to previous publications. The exception is non-cash pension adjustments included in ‘interest and other finance costs’, where the finance record does not collect an amended value.

The data can be found on the HESA Open Data website which also includes data for individual providers.