August 19, 2021

UOW updates staff on financial impact of COVID-19

Ongoing challenges confirm need to continue along path to financial sustainability

The University of Wollongong (UOW) today (Thursday 19 August 2021) updated staff on its financial position as the impacts of COVID-19 continue.

The University remains on its planned path towards restoring financial sustainability, however, challenges remain.

After the onset of the pandemic in 2020, UOW acted quickly to mitigate the financial impact through measures including expenditure controls, cost savings, executive pay reductions, a Voluntary Early Retirement scheme, Enterprise Agreement variations agreed to by staff and their campus unions, and a new operating model designed to reduce costs by eliminating duplication of resources, functions and processes.

UOW Chief Operating Officer Mr Damien Israel said the forecasts the University made to inform its decision-making when the pandemic hit have on the whole been realised.

“In July 2020, we planned for a longer-term downturn in international students and predicted that commencing students in 2021 could fall even further. That scenario has transpired,” Mr Israel said. 

“In 2021, new commencing international students will be less than half of what they were in 2019.

“We hoped international students would start to return to us in more significant numbers in 2022 through quarantine plans prepared with the NSW government.  However, this is looking less likely. This means we need to persevere with the financial plans we have put in place.”

The Commonwealth Government has helped universities with short-term financial assistance in the form of additional funding for research and domestic student places. However, these funds only go a small way to the gap left by the decline in international students.

UOW has had strong enrolments of domestic students in 2020 and 2021, which is promising and evidence of the University's academic strengths, but with recent changes to Government policy this does not necessarily translate directly into equivalent additional funding

Mr Israel praised UOW staff for their efforts to keep the University’s expenditure within the reduced level of income: “Thank you for your continued support as we navigate this challenging period. Together, we are addressing our current challenges and creating a stronger University that will thrive for many decades to come,” he said in a message to staff.

“The situation is complex, and our financial outlook continues to be challenging, but we are on the path to recovery that we have planned for, which will help us prepare for what lies ahead,” Mr Israel said.

“The core objectives that continue to guide all financial decisions are to maintain the capacity to deliver and strengthen the student experience and support our frontline teaching and research staff. We want to advance many strategies and activities; however, it is still not business as usual, and we must remain prudent.”