Where your tuition fees go

For the last completed financial year, the University made a small surplus of £1.1m* from income of £70.1m against expenditure of £69.0m.

Income

Students' tuition fees are by far the largest source of income for the university, making up over 81% of Leeds Trinity University's total income.

The rest of the income comes from grants from funding councils, research and other income sources such as accommodation, the bar and sports centre.

Expenditure

Staff costs make up the vast majority of expenditure. This includes staff salaries, the employer’s national insurance contributions and the employer’s pension contributions. For the Teacher’s Pension scheme, the employer contribution is 28.68%, and for the West Yorkshire Pension Fund, the employer contribution is 19.1%.

The next most significant cost is other operating expenses, and this includes any other direct costs related to day-to-day operations, including utilities, maintenance, teaching materials, professional fees, rent, student hardship and bursary support and any other general overheads.

Depreciation is a charge on assets that have a useful economic life greater than one year and allocates the cost of an asset over the course of its economic life.

Finally, interest and other finance costs are costs related to financing activities, including loans and overdrafts.

Overall financial position

The University needs to generate a surplus to ensure it can not only cover the costs of delivery in year, but also to ensure there are surplus funds to reinvest into the teaching facilities to provide the best possible student experience.

In recent years, this has included building a new Health and Life Sciences building to support delivery of a new subject area and investment in sector-leading Leeds City Campus.

Recent pressures on university finances have arisen because of inflationary pressures on all expenditure against a backdrop of a core home undergraduate fee that has been £9,250 since 2017, rising to £9,535 in 2025/26. Had this fee risen in line with inflation during the same period it would now be £12,300.

A more detailed analysis of the University’s financial statements can be found on our Financial Public Information page.

Notes 1 to 6 of the accounts provide more detailed breakdowns of income, whilst note 7 shows a more detailed analysis of staffing costs. Note 8 shows a breakdown of other operating expenses, and finally, note 9 shows the university’s fixed assets and associated depreciation charge.

* operating surplus excluding pension accounting adjustments