The annual, independent audit of the college’s financial books (by the KPMG company) has confirmed that the school ended the 2017-18 fiscal year (April of 2017 to March of 2018) with a budgetary surplus of $13.3 million.
That was almost double the surplus of $7.9 million recorded during the 2016-17 fiscal year.
The lion’s share of the excess of revenues-over-expenditures took the form of a huge increase in tuition revenue, thanks to the gargantuan hike in international student enrolment. In 2016-17, the college had taken in $32.5 million in tuition revenue. In 2017-18, that figure jumped to $46.1 million. Virtually that entire increase is accounted for by international enrolment, because the enrolment of domestic (Canadian) students has stagnated due to low population growth (of the college-aged demographic) in southwestern Ontario.
Also contributing significantly to last year’s “black ink” was the hefty tuition revenue ($8 million) generated by the delivery of a half-dozen programs at St. Clair’s “sister satellite school” in Toronto, the privately-owned-and-operated Ace Acumen Academy. That funding will evaporate within the next year, however, due to a provincial government decision to eradicate partnerships between public and private colleges … unless, of course, the new Conservative government wishes to revisit that decision by its Liberal predecessor.
Contract Training also jumped from $22.7 to $25.2 million between 2016-17 and 2017-18.
Provincial and federal grant funding remained stagnant at slightly under $50 million.
Total revenue in 2017-18 was just shy of $144 million, up from $132.6 in the previous year.
Total expenditures in 2017-18 climbed to $130.7 million from $124.7 million in 2016-17.
The lion’s share of that figure, as always, involved salaries and benefits: $74.6 million. That number was about $5 million less than had been budgeted at the start of the fiscal year, however, because of the monies saved as a result of the five-weeks-long faculty strike during the fall semester.
Having the heftier-than-expected surplus of $13 million has come in handy as the 2018-19 academic/fiscal year got underway, given the ongoing expenses associated with continued enrolment growth.
As it awaits provincial government approval of its plans to construct a new Academic Tower of classrooms, the college had to secure and develop new facilities to accommodate an additional 2,500 international students who are expected to arrive in the fall – pushing St. Clair’s enrolment from 10,000 to 12,500.
It accomplished that by leasing 31,000 square feet of space in the One Riverside Drive office building, where approximately 1,000 Business students will be housed beginning in September. In addition to the leasing expense, the college is having to spend several million dollars to construct and equip the new classroom and office space in that building.
The 2018-19 budget, approved by the Board of Governors during its March meeting, projects revenues for the year at $177.4 million, expenditures of $174.7 million, and (thus) a year-end surplus of $2.674 million.
