Chart 1 - Income of HE providers by location and category 2014/15 to 2021/22

Type of data

Administrative data

Data source

HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) is part of Jisc. We are the experts in UK higher education data and analysis. We have been collecting higher education information since the 1994/95 academic year.

Finance data is taken from the HESA Finance record, which universities, colleges and other higher education providers return to HESA on an annual basis. The Finance record collects a range of information about the primary financial statements from HE providers' published accounts.

From 2018/19, data for English HE providers (excluding further education colleges and sixth form colleges under the primary regulation of the Education and Skills Funding Agency) was collected by the Office for Students.

We provide data and analysis on finances of HE providers to a wide variety of customers, including:

• Governments
• Universities (via the Heidi Plus analytics tool)
• Academic and commercial researchers
• Students and potential students
• Trade unions and employers' associations
• Policy makers.

Our data is used to regulate the sector, inform policy making, advance understanding of social and economic trends, support decision making, and enhance public understanding of - and confidence in - the higher education sector.

Related releases

Our HE Provider Data: Finance data pages collect together all of the tables we publish on finances in higher education.

Further information

• Definitions - Finances
• Data intelligence - Finances
• It may be helpful to refer to the information disclosed in a provider’s financial statements to help understand or contextualise the figures presented.

This table displays high-level values of income and expenditure, surplus and realised and unrealised gains and losses.

The comprehensive income for the year is further analysed by restricted, unrestricted income, endowment and revaluation reserve showing the movement of reserves in the year. The radio button ‘Income & expenditure’ displays sources of income and types of expenditure. The radio button ‘Other’ displays details of surplus, realised and unrealised gains and losses and also displays further analysis of comprehensive income. The analysis of comprehensive income is displayed for non-English providers. OfS does not collect this data from English providers.

View Table 1 - Consolidated statement of comprehensive income and expenditure

This table is the equivalent of a statement of comprehensive income and expenditure. It displays high-level values of the sources of a provider’s income and expenditure and is in line with SORP (2019).

The CSCI displays income streams of:

• tuition fees and education grants
• funding body grants
• research grants and contracts
• other income
• investment income
• donations and endowments

Expenditure streams shown are:

• staff costs
• fundamental restructuring costs
• other operating expenses
• depreciation
• interest and other finance costs

The difference between income and expenditure is shown as surplus or deficit before gains and losses and the share of joint surplus or deficits from joint ventures and associates.

This table also displays both realised and unrealised gains and losses before displaying the total comprehensive income for the year. Realised gains and losses are those involving cash transactions. Unrealised gains and losses are those involving accounting transactions.

The total comprehensive income for the year is further analysed by categories of income carried forward to the income and expenditure reserve categorised as restricted and non-restricted income, endowment and revaluation reserve income. Data published relate to providers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Providers in England do not submit this data.

Surplus is broken down further for all providers by non-controlling interest and its own surplus. A non-controlling interest is where a provider has minority interest in another entity, has less than 50% of shares in that entity and has no control over its decisions.

Where applicable, providers in England who are incorporated as a company provide data related to payment of dividends in the year.

In certain instances, providers deviate from the traditional streams of income and expenditure and report a material transaction as a separate line in their primary statements. A material transaction is a transaction which has a significant impact on the business and necessitates separate disclosure on the face of primary statements. Providers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland complete a further table providing further explanation of such material transaction. View Separately disclosed material items from the audited financial statement of comprehensive income and expenditure by HE provider and academic year in the open data.

This table collects data retrospectively for the latest completed financial year. It also collects restated data to previously submitted information for the one year prior as comparison to the current year.

This table answers the question of financial sustainability, whether the provider is operating within their means and whether enough income is being generated to meet the expenditure incurred. A deficit potentially raises questions of sustainability, leading to strategies either to cut expenditure or increase income. A surplus suggests that funds generated can be invested to renew facilities and innovate. A caveat here is that a single financial indicator does not convey the institution’s financial health. Note also that surplus/deficit may also include material ‘accounting’ transactions, which are not operational cash transactions, such as changes in provisions. This means that, taken as one year, surplus/deficit may not represent the underlying financial operational performance.