Malaspina Board Adopts Balanced Budget For 2004/05 Fiscal Year

The Malaspina University-College Board has adopted a balanced operating budget of $84,023,888 for the 2004-05 fiscal year; up from $81-million last year.

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The budget consists of the following:

• $42,736,974 from the Ministry of Advanced Education for general operations and capital equipment – 50.9% of the total budget – down from $42,882,680.




• $15,735,580 expected from student tuition fees – 18.7% of the total budget – up from $13,981,022.




• $17,500,000 estimated gross revenues from international education, business and industrial training contracts – 20.8% of the total budget - $1.7-million more than last year.




• $5,300,000 projected gross revenues from ancillary services (cafeterias and bookstore) – 6.3% of the total budget.




• $2,751,334 anticipated revenues from programs and services, such as the hairdressing salon, trades programs, rental of facilities, and application fees – 3.3% of the total budget.

 “This budget illustrates our continued growth,” said Malaspina president Rich Johnston.  “The budget includes increased funding for our tuition bursaries to ensure that students continue to have access to post-secondary education, and we’ve also made investments in information technology to replace obsolete equipment and software,” he said.

Edwin Deas, vice president of administration & bursar, said that the budget shows a decrease in provincial funding because of the elimination of funding for leases for the Cowichan and Powell River campuses, totaling $609,477.

“The Ministry of Advanced Education recently purchased the building that houses the Powell River campus from School District 47, and we acquired the Cowichan campus from the leasehold company,” he said.

The 2004-05 budget includes savings and reinvestments.

“We’ve been able to realize a permanent reduction of $815,000 without any lay-off of regular employees, and we’ve reinvested $2,062,714 to respond to student demand for courses and to address quality issues in instruction, services, and particularly in information technology (IT) equipment to ensure that our students have access to current equipment and software,” said Deas.