The University's finances at a glance 2024/25

Understand where our money comes from, how it's spent and the financial opportunities and challenges ahead.

• Summary of key financial results
• Where our money comes from
• Where we spend our money
• Key activity spend
• Investing in the student experience
• University reserves and resources we can spend
• Our University strategy to 2035

Summary of key financial results

The continued strong demand for student places at Manchester, combined with excellence in world-leading research has led to a marginal increase in total income and another year of record levels of income at £1.4 billion. Despite cost pressures and increasing levels of expenditure (excluding changes in USS pension deficit recovery plan), the University has managed its finances to continue to generate positive cash-flows for reinvestment to deliver the strategic objectives.

The University’s total adjusted operating surplus for the year is £84.4 million, 5.9% of total income, an increase of £42.8 million on the previous year (excluding the 23/24 changes to the USS deficit recovery plan).

The University does not make a profit; all surpluses are reinvested to fulfil our core goals.

In 24/25 our income grew by £57.1 million to over £1.4 billion due to changes across income streams:

• tuition fee income grew by £49.3 million;
• a continued uplift to our research funding of £15.5 million.

These were partially offset by:

• decreases in investment income of £3.0 million;
• and lower income from donations, endowments and other sources of £4.5 million.

Total expenditure for 24/25 of £1,337.5 million has increased by £14.3 million or 1.1%, excluding the one-off credit of £299.2 million in 23/24 for changes to the USS pension scheme deficit reduction plan. The increase is due to the continuing impact of inflation, offset by a reduction in premises costs. 
 

Where our money comes from

Tuition fees represent 54% (£763.6 million) of the University’s total annual income (£1.4 billion): 36% UK and 64% international student fees. In 2024/25, UK undergraduate fees continued at £9,250, so are declining in real terms as inflation increases the costs of teaching delivery. Fee growth is now increasingly from pricing rather than an increase in student numbers.

Our other main source of income is research-related. Income from funding bodies of £150.9 million is in line with the prior year. Reductions in recurrent funding from Research England and specific initiatives grants have been offset by the Office for Students capital grant and other recurrent grants.

Capital income is grant income for the purchase of research equipment and, on occasions, towards a building.

Other income includes other grant income and donation and investment income. 

Where we spend our money

The largest proportion of our income is spent on our staff (£736.0 million annually or £61 million per month), who support the delivery of our core goals. Our staff costs have grown due primarily to a 4.7% increase in average full time equivalent posts, inflationary pay awards, automatic pay increments and the result of changes to Employers’ National Insurance rates. These increases were partially offset by a decrease in pension costs linked to reduced USS pension scheme contribution rates.

The University invested in new posts to support student experience, IT operations and research, Unit M initiation and strategic change programmes. The increased research activity also increased staff costs, but this was offset by staff vacancies across the University. This has meant that staff costs are now 51.7% of income versus 50.7% in 2023/24.

Other operating expenditure (OOE) across research, teaching and general administration of the University has decreased by £16.1 million. The £6.8 million growth in academic and related expenditure (linked to additional spend on student support for studentships and bursaries), and an increase in residences, catering and conferences costs have been offset by the decrease in premises costs. Residences, catering and conferences costs increased due to higher halls of residence lease costs. The reduction in premises costs is mainly due to the recognition of costs relating to the exit from the north campus and the demolition of the Faraday Tower in the prior year.

The University spent £113.8 million on pensions in the year and pays £18 million per annum in loan interest. 

Key activity spend

Excluding the one-off pension scheme adjustment, expenditure is up by £14 million (1%) due to increases in pay costs and continuing inflation.

The University’s largest areas of spending by activity are in our academic teaching departments (£549 million), research (£218 million) and running our estate of buildings (£184 million).

Investing in the student experience

In the year in review, we invested £8.8 million in the Fallowfield Campus Redevelopment Project, which is planned to replace existing bed spaces with up to 3,300 new state-of-the-art bed spaces, increasing the number of beds by up to 950. A further £2.7 million was spent on capital improvements across halls of residence.

Other key investments include:

• £5.1 million on delivering high-quality blended and flexible learning experiences;
• £4.2 million on enhancing the student experience, providing greater flexibility and personalised services;
• £3.1 million grant given to the Students’ Union (increase of £0.1m from 2023/24);
• £1.9 million investment in new teaching capacity and new course development in Humanities. 

University reserves and resources we can spend

Cash and short-term investments is the only resource the University can spend. We need to keep £220 million of cash to fund our next 60 days of operating costs (largely staff costs). At the end of July 2025, the University had £574 million in cash and short-term investments.

The University has many areas it continues to need to invest in: student and staff-related facilities and support, IT infrastructure services and further cyber-attack prevention, maintenance of its substantial and diverse estate, and general improvement of its processes. With these challenges, the University’s need for continued and extensive investment means that cash generation for re-investment is critical. 

Our University strategy to 2035

The University has recently announced our strategy to 2035, From Manchester for the world. The strategy outlines the foundation building activities and necessary leaps that we will make to become a great civic university of the 21st century. Finances are a key underpinning of this strategy and we are committed to the following:

• Funding that brings together our investments in the foundations of our digital and physical campus (the first time these have been brought together).
• Funding designed to support the leaps described in our strategy.

Both of these are supplemental to operational resources.

Find out more about the University’s strategy to 2035.  

Download our finances at a glance infographic (PDF, 1.54MB) to learn more about our 2024/25 results.