UNIVERSITY PROFITS have risen to £8.7 million, annual accounts have shown.
A large rise in tuition fee revenue and a 7.3% increase in research funding drove gross turnover to a lofty £290 million.
Despite the rise, research funding has still not recovered to its pre-financial crisis levels.
Helena, a first year language student, commented: “For those of us paying £24,000 or even £36,000 for a degree, it is vital that the increase in profits is put back into the university for students. It should not be an added bonus but a compulsory procedure.”
The upturn in profits means that the university will gradually start making down payments on its outstanding debts.
The figures also reveal that staff numbers have increased by 66, boosting the number of university staff to 3,176. Approximately half of the new staff filled academic positions.
One outspoken socialist Maths student stressed the importance of paying new non-academic university staff the living wage: “I think it’s outrageous that the university has not signed up to the scheme.”
While the University of York has not signed up to the Living Wage Commission, non-academic staff are currently paid more than the living wage.
In 2012, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, and author Richard Wilkinson pledged support for York’s Living Wage campaign.