Teaching revenue is well up on 2019 year to date

The COVID-19 crunch at Uni Sydney is not as crunchier as management first feared – in March this year’s revenue decline was expected to be $200m, next month the expectation was $470m (CMM April 9).

But as VC Michael Spence told staff yesterday, things are looking up.

And faculty income figures certainly point to better than feared forecasts.

They are now  at $1.799m, up from $1.689m last year. Dr Spence may have been alluding to this when he mentioned second semester enrolments are better than expected (CMM August 12).

Of course, this may be as good as it gets – enrolment observers suggest student numbers may fall at student census date, September 29.  Even so, revenue is 4 per cent under budget now and forecast final revenue is expected to be down not much more, at 6.3 per cent.

Faculties forecasted to have the worse results, against budget are, the business school (-11.6 per cent) and FASS (-8.5 per cent).

Observers suggest things are are ok-ish because of local domestic demand and international students sticking with Uni Sydney, by studying on-line.

Dr Spence has previously warned international numbers are not likely to return to pre-COVID-19 numbers next year but yesterday he told staff the university now expects commencing international students in first semester 2021 to be 65 per cent of what was planned and 80 per cent in second semester.