Now that 2019 has ended, we can see clearly that the university's economic performance for the year were better than the forecast had indicated, even if the funding cap was not reached. Overall, the university has a surplus of SEK 400,000.

Funding cap
The maximum compensation from the government that a Swedish higher education institution (HEI) can receive for undergraduate or graduate education for one year is called the funding cap. The compensation depends on the number of registered students and how many points they earn as well as the discipline to which the students belong.

Administrative capital
If a higher education institution over the course of a year does not use the research and educational appropriations allocated by the government, the surplus can be saved as administrative capital. 

"In the work to review our revenues and expenses, the university's employees have done an extraordinary job that has meant that we turned a negative trend into a positive trend. We are now in a much better position than we were a year ago," says Mats Tinnsten.

The fact that the forecast last autumn showed a deficit for 2019 is partly explained by the fact that it was a rather cautious forecast. Yet rather than seeing worst-case scenarios, everything has gone better than expected.

A large part of this is that the number of full-time equivalent students increased by 408; half of this increase relates to students in freestanding courses, in which significant investments were made during the year. The value of all registered students and their performance is just over SEK 11 million better than forecasted.

"Everything we've done has borne fruit and we'll be sure to remember this. However, we must remain prudent and economically alert in 2020," Mats Tinnsten points out.

For 2020, the university has budgeted a surplus of SEK 5 million to build up administrative capital to the level of over seven per cent as desired by the board; currently it is just under five per cent. Greater administrative capital ensures that the university has the possibility to use resources more evenly and to ensure that future fluctuations do not burden employees to the same extent.

Read more

Read more a year in general in the article "2019 – a good year for the university" (Swedish only)

Take note of the university's annual reports (the 2019 Annual Report will be published shortly) (Swedish only)

Text: Johanna Avadahl
Photo: Suss Wilén
Translation: Eva Medin