Teesside University vows to work with business

Mar 10 2010 By The Journal

TEESSIDE University yesterday said that it would continue to grow and work increasingly with business despite facing millions of pounds of cuts in funding.

Vice chancellor Professor Graham Henderson told the North East Chamber of Commerce Tees Valley AGM yesterday that the institution was in a strong position.

"The £1 billion of cuts the Government is going to make in university funding for us will see more than £12m a year wiped off our income, so in two years’ time our income from public sources will be less than 50%," he said.’

He pointed out that Teesside University last year won the title of university of the year partly on the strength of its finances and last year made its sixth consecutive balance sheet surplus

He said: " "Last year we made a balance sheet surplus of more than £11m, that’s a cash surplus of about £18m. We have just built a £15m building and we paid for that out of last year’s surplus. We have very low borrowings – in single figures of millions of pounds – and we have £56m in the bank."

The university has also won £5m of matched funding to work with businesses and it will continue to work with Middlesbrough Council as one of the leads on Digital City which is currently starting a new business every week.

Prof Henderson said: "We are seen as a university that tries very hard to support the regional economy."