Financial Summary
Information to show how we are funded and where we invest our income.
Vision and Strategy to 2025
The university has in place a well-developed strategic plan, Vision and Strategy to 2025, which sets out a vision for the next five years “to inspire and enable; transforming people and places and driving economic, social and cultural success”.
The key to achieving this vision is our commitment to being efficient, effective, and delivering value for money. In addition, given the increasingly constrained financial climate, the need for efficiency and effectiveness is now widely acknowledged as the need to address the increasing costs and static income.
Where our money comes from
During 22/23, the University Group grew its total income to £50.9m, an increase of £3.7m on the previous year.
- Tuition fees and education contracts: 73%
- Funding body grants: 11%
- Research Grant and Contracts: 1%
- Other income: 15%
Tuition Fees and Education Contracts
The University’s main source of revenue continues to be derived from tuition fees and education contracts. This has increased mainly by the growth in international student fees and the commencement of the HEIW education contract to deliver nursing and allied health commissioned places.
Funding Body Grants
The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) provides funding to the University for a variety of initiatives. This level reduced slightly in 22/23 as the previous year including one-off targeted grants from Welsh Government put in place to help students and institutions mange the pandemic recovery.
Research Grants and Contracts
This includes research grants from UK and EU governments, other public sector bodies, charities and industry and reduced in 22/23 due to a significant grant ending.
Other Income
This includes income from residences, catering, conferences, non-research grants and contracts, capital grants, investments and donations.
Where our money is spent
For the 22/23 financial year, how the University spent its income is detailed below:
The University’s main expenditure is on direct teaching, and continues to invest in teaching and learning to deliver value to our students as well as in a range of other areas that benefits and supports students and enhances the student experience.
Wrexham Glyndwr Students’ Union: The University contributed £400,000 to help support the running of the Students’ Union.
One-off additional cost for 2022/23: The University aims to only spend at levels which are within the income it has generated during the year and there were no abnormal one-off items to report in 2022/23.
Investment in our campuses and estates
- Student facilities / Campus 2025 and Infrastructure: £3.8m
- Research Equipment: £0.047m
Our campuses and estates are central to the operational effectiveness of our university and the experience of staff and students alike; it plays a critical role in ensuring that a university can meet the many demands placed on it. As the higher education sector adapts to a new and more competitive environment, the role and purpose of the estate as a potential competitive advantage has also increased.
The University has continued with its ambitious Campus 2025 plans and during the year, the HEFCW capital grant was used to fund campus improvements, in line with the agreed Campus 2025 strategy. This saw the further development of Phase 2A of the Health Education Innovation Quarter (HEIQ) internal improvements to teaching and learning spaces including the refurbishment of the Crispin Lane ‘K’ block to supplement the recently introduced Healthcare Simulation Centre to increase the
provision for learning and teaching space aimed at creating first class facilities for the nursing and allied health students, who commenced their studies at the start of the 22/23 year and for the new cohort starting in September ’23.
Investment in digital and IT infrastructure
One of the key deliverables for efficiencies and effectiveness is to ensure that our investment in IT infrastructure is exploited efficiently and effectively. The University continued to implement IT-related projects, including improvements to the Student Information Management System (SITS) and the HR Management System (iTrent). A new streamlined payment portal for overseas students was introduced (Flywire) as well as e-portfolio software to help staff provide allied health and nursing students will real-time feedback and sign-off of placement hours. Another new introduction was Target Connect which provides CRM, appointment booking and other functionality to the ASK student support teams.
These will deliver efficiencies, process effectiveness as well as enhance student learning through digital implementations.
Investment in Research
During the 22/23 reporting period, the University was successful in obtaining £0.700m of research grants and contracts income.
Over the last 12 months funded research from the Cyfiawnder Research Institute, has included; Understanding perceptions of, and demand for, residential rehabilitation among individuals with drug use issues; Insight into the beliefs, attitudes and behaviour around cannabis use in Wales and the Evaluation of the World Health Organization Evidence into Action Alcohol Project. Researchers at the University also received funding from Public Health Wales to Review and evaluate the national care models for providing care for children and young people with learning disabilities.
Collaborative research projects across Welsh HEIs funded by the Welsh Government include The Youth Work Review, Talk Pedagogy project and the roll the Children’s University across North Wales.
In 2023 Wrexham University School of Art secured a four-year EPSRC grant with The Royal College of Art to establish the Ecological Citizens Network Plus to promote sustainable change through the digital economy. Another project led by the University of Cambridge and funded by the AHRC will create a Community Open Map Platform for future generations to chart the green transition on Anglesey.
A new Research Information Management System was implemented with staff profiles and research ethics initially rolled out, with research grant costing and reporting to follow.
Investment in the Community - Civic Mission Strategy
The University spent in excess of £0.300m on its Civic Mission strategy in 22/23. Our Civic Mission was created and developed working with many partners across North Wales and has been truly co-created around the challenges that matter most in our society and is focused on working in partnership to end social inequality in North Wales by 2030.
Examples of the activities we have been involved in, led and enabled across the region through our Civic Mission Partnership Strategy include:
- Securing over £0.800m of HEFCW funding to roll out the Children’s University project across North Wales;
- Developing our approach to becoming a Trauma and adverse childhood experience (TrACE) informed university; and
- Working with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to develop a Leadership, Learning and Storytelling project designed to increase children and young people’s self-esteem, confidence, self-efficacy and resilience.
Effective support services
A core activity is the provision of education services to students and the research programmes undertaken by academics.
Value for money in this context is therefore about an efficient operating model and in keeping administration and overhead costs low. It should however be borne in mind that ‘admin costs’ include functions such as finance, human resources and IT services, student recruitment and admissions, without which it would not be possible for the University to function.
In the past two years for which data is available, the level of admin costs as a proportion of the University’s expenditure has reduced from 18.0% to 17.3%, which has remained stable and continues to deliver effective support services.
Financial statements
The financial statements provide information to give a true and fair view of both the University's financial performance and its financial position at the year-end. View financial statements here.
