CHANGING PRIORITIES – ACADIA BY NUMBERS
SUMMARY
I have once again looked at the numbers from the audited financial reports and added the most recent numbers to my ongoing longitudinal look at spending trends at the university. The full report can be viewed at http://www.caut.ca/aufa/newsletter/0309/financialanalysis.htm.
The 2007-08 total expenditures were slightly over $72 million and that represents a drop of about $4.5 million from the previous year. It is encouraging that total expenditures have finally started to fall in response to our declining enrolment revenue. Nevertheless, the university’s expenses were in excess of revenues by $6.6 million. The university has been in this situation consistently since 2003 and the amount has risen steadily during that time – last year it was $5.3 million.
Table 1 below gives how the monies were dispersed by sector.
|
Year |
Academic |
Plant |
Admin |
Library |
Student Services |
Other |
Ancillary |
Total |
|
2000 |
27964 |
3974 |
3754 |
2152 |
2534 |
2828 |
10776 |
53982 |
|
2001 |
29832 |
4450 |
4740 |
2264 |
2624 |
2840 |
10923 |
57673 |
|
2002 |
31661 |
4495 |
4978 |
2338 |
2848 |
2986 |
11857 |
61163 |
|
2003 |
33536 |
5254 |
5084 |
2364 |
2884 |
2685 |
13811 |
65618 |
|
2004 |
34499 |
5202 |
5859 |
2438 |
2964 |
3717 |
16111 |
70790 |
|
2005 |
33583 |
5288 |
6915 |
2513 |
3279 |
3492 |
15172 |
70242 |
|
2006 |
36210 |
5707 |
6616 |
3012 |
3970 |
4260 |
15279 |
75054 |
|
2007 |
36884 |
5791 |
7711 |
3047 |
3709 |
4433 |
15020 |
76595 |
|
2008 |
35450 |
6662 |
8590 |
2766 |
3477 |
4939 |
10216 |
72102 |
Table 1 – Spending by sector since 2000. All amounts are in thousands of dollars.
|
Year |
Academic |
Plant |
Admin |
Library |
Student Services |
Other |
Ancillary |
Total |
|
2000 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
|
2001 |
6.7 |
12.0 |
26.3 |
5.2 |
3.6 |
0.4 |
1.4 |
6.8 |
|
2002 |
13.2 |
13.1 |
32.6 |
8.6 |
12.4 |
5.6 |
10.0 |
13.3 |
|
2003 |
19.9 |
32.2 |
35.4 |
9.9 |
13.8 |
-5.1 |
28.2 |
21.6 |
|
2004 |
23.4 |
30.9 |
56.1 |
13.3 |
17.0 |
31.4 |
49.5 |
31.1 |
|
2005 |
20.1 |
33.1 |
84.2 |
16.8 |
29.4 |
23.5 |
40.8 |
30.1 |
|
2006 |
29.5 |
43.6 |
76.2 |
40.0 |
56.7 |
50.6 |
41.8 |
39.0 |
|
2007 |
31.9 |
45.7 |
105.4 |
41.6 |
46.4 |
56.8 |
39.4 |
41.9 |
|
2008 |
26.8 |
67.6 |
128.8 |
28.5 |
37.2 |
74.6 |
-5.2 |
33.6 |
Table 2 – Percentage increase in expenses by sector relative to 2000.
From Table 2 we can see that total expenses in 2008 were 33.6% higher than in 2000. All sectors, with the exception of Ancillary, Academic and Library, had growth that exceeded the average growth. In order to examine these trends more closely, we extracted detailed data from the statements on how the monies were spent in the Academic and Administration sectors.
|
Year |
Total Wages |
Fringe Benefits |
Supplies |
Ext. contr. Serv. |
Travel |
Prof. fees |
Other |
|
||||||
|
2000 |
19120 |
2040 |
5831 |
239 |
599 |
93 |
22 |
|
||||||
|
2001 |
19777 |
1856 |
7179 |
222 |
686 |
74 |
19 |
|
||||||
|
2002 |
20551 |
2250 |
7835 |
218 |
718 |
37 |
18 |
|
||||||
|
2003 |
22003 |
2475 |
7248 |
264 |
744 |
144 |
22 |
|
||||||
|
2004 |
22776 |
3586 |
6826 |
283 |
762 |
236 |
9 |
|
||||||
|
2005 |
24266 |
3259 |
4836 |
237 |
738 |
206 |
25 |
|
||||||
|
2006 |
25980 |
4203 |
4787 |
182 |
818 |
173 |
58 |
|
||||||
|
2007 |
27408 |
3441 |
4726 |
219 |
786 |
266 |
31 |
|
||||||
|
2008 |
26457 |
3208 |
4704 |
205 |
752 |
81 |
38 |
|
||||||
|
Table 3 – Details for expenditures in the academic sector. All amounts are in thousands of dollars. |
||||||||||||||
|
Total Wages |
Fringe Benefits |
Supplies |
Ext. contr. Serv. |
Travel |
Prof. fees |
Other |
||||||||
|
2000 |
1775 |
432 |
1083 |
55 |
164 |
193 |
52 |
|||||||
|
2001 |
2365 |
565 |
1017 |
64 |
155 |
269 |
73 |
|||||||
|
2002 |
2711 |
582 |
529 |
105 |
237 |
283 |
45 |
|||||||
|
2003 |
2746 |
544 |
819 |
60 |
209 |
269 |
58 |
|||||||
|
2004 |
3140 |
753 |
1033 |
77 |
175 |
316 |
63 |
|||||||
|
2005 |
3841 |
969 |
1219 |
45 |
259 |
254 |
77 |
|||||||
|
2006 |
3385 |
978 |
1230 |
34 |
357 |
286 |
98 |
|||||||
|
2007 |
3624 |
1879 |
1328 |
27 |
310 |
221 |
101 |
|||||||
|
2008 |
3811 |
2560 |
1131 |
97 |
287 |
421 |
100 |
|||||||
|
Table 4 – Details for expenditures in the administration sector. All amounts in thousands of dollars. |
||||||||||||||
Two disturbing trends are observed here. Total wages in the administration sector have grown substantially over this time period (about 115% relative to 2000) while the academic wages have grown by 38.4%. Supplies in the academic sector have decreased steadily since 2002, and in 2008 were over $1 million less than was spent in 2000. There is no parallel pattern in the administrative supplies expenses.
The startling increases in fringe benefits in the administrative sector are due to the special payments required for the all-employee pension plan.
It is useful to look to external measures to see if these patterns are consistent with other institutions. Table 5 contains Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO) data on expense by sector.
|
Instruction |
External |
Physical |
Student |
Admin |
Computing |
Library |
Non-credit |
|
|
National |
57 |
2 |
11 |
8 |
11 |
4 |
5 |
2 |
|
Primarily Undergrad. |
54 |
2 |
12 |
9 |
12 |
4 |
5 |
2 |
|
Acadia |
49 |
1 |
11 |
11 |
13 |
9 |
5 |
1 |
|
Table 5 – Comparison of CAUBO data for the year 2007. Numbers are percentage of total expenses allocated to each sector. |
||||||||
It appears that the trend of increased spending on administration and decreased spending in the academic sector has continued into 2007-08. This information has been presented to the Joint Finance Committee and we have been promised further insight into these trends. We have also been given some preliminary data for the 2008-09 year that suggest that some changes may have occurred.
Peter Williams