The University of Edinburgh released their latest financial accounts which confirm that there is no financial deficit.
The accounts cover 2024 until July 2025, and show that the university has increased income by three per cent from the previous year, at a total of £1477m.
Currently, the university is in a financial surplus of £43m.
The majority of this income is sourced from tuition fees, which make up 38 per cent.
Professor Sir Peter Mathieson has expressed concern about reliance on international tuition fees in the past: “In 2020, we have this dependence on international students … so we modelled what would happen [if no international students could come] … Without any mitigation, we could survive about three or four years.”
He continued: “We don’t have the resilience we had back in 2020 … that would precipitate real financial problems for everybody, including us.”
This resulted in his case for changes to the Scottish model of tuition fees in January 2026.
In the financial report, the university states: “Expenditure growth in 2024/25 again outpaced income growth … However such a trend is unsustainable over a prolonged period and is why the university is taking action to manage its cost base.
“We have started on this journey through a voluntary severance scheme that will result in reduced costs from 2025/26 onwards and in the last year our spend on other operating expenditure was notably reduced.”
Despite this decrease, total expenditure increased by three percent from the previous year and staff costs are the largest contributor at 54 per cent.
The Edinburgh branch of the University and College Union (UCUE) have since commented: “Those financial pressures are far from severe enough to justify the proposed cuts … Using this narrative to continue justifying £90m in staff cuts is nothing less than shameless.
“Likewise, senior management has never owned up to their own role in creating the pressures.”
However, in December 2025, the university reached an agreement with UCU and there will be no further strike action throughout UCUE’s current mandate.
A politics student shared her views with The Student: “There seem to be major inconsistencies between the rhetoric of the university management and the material reality, which the annual report and multiple strike days prove are harming student and staff experience.”
A spokesperson for the university said: “Our university is not in deficit, but costs are rising faster than income, and without the difficult decisions already taken our position would be far more fragile.
“We recognise the uncertainty this creates and are committed to engaging openly with our community as we navigate this period. It remains our position that, wherever possible, we will seek to avoid compulsory redundancies.
“Every decision we take is focused on protecting high-quality education, our students’ experience and world-leading research, while safeguarding the university for generations to come.”
“Old College, University of Edinburgh” by Su Hongjia is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.