The profit hit list: Leeds ranks amongst the top universities for its tuition fee profits

The University of Leeds has ranked amongst the top universities for its tuition fee profits.

A report revealing universities’ tuition fee profits and annual staff expenditures analysed data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency on university income in the UK between 2022 and 2023 to source its findings.

According to Insider Media, The University of Leeds came in at fifth place, obtaining £507.2m through annual tuition fees alone. The report also found that the staffing costs for the university add up to £457.8m.

There are significant expenses for universities to maintain essential services like libraries, wellness support, computer labs, students’ union areas and classrooms. Additional course-specific costs include faculty salaries and course materials. To cover these costs, tuition fee payments are one of the main sources of revenue for all universities, alongside research funding, grants and endorsements.

The university earning the most from tuition fees is University College London, topping the list with an estimated £911m – the largest income of any university by tuition fee alone. Staffing expenditure costs over £917m at this institution.

King’s College London and Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine are other London universities that made the top ten list, ranking third and eighth respectively.  The tuition fee profits from King’s College London add up to an approximated £607.8m, whilst staff salaries cost around £599m.

The University of Manchester came in at second with a revenue that exceeds £659m from tuition fees with staffing expenditure costs reaching over £623.3m.

The University of Edinburgh ranks just above Leeds, sitting at fourth with a revenue of £513.6m from tuition fees annually, and staff salaries costing over £653m.

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In sixth place is the University of Oxford. Whilst the institution incurs tuition free profits close to £504m, staffing costs far exceed all other institutions on the list, coming in at £1.12bn.

Oxford was followed by the University of Warwick and the University of Birmingham, with profits of £453.7m and £445m, respectively.

Just making it onto the list in 10th place, is the University of Nottingham, generating a yearly revenue of £435m from student fee payments and losing £392m on staff expenditures.