Which university is most average for spend on travel, entertainment and staff development when accounting for revenue (2021)?
UniSA is the most average traveller
Analysis
The linear model provides a conservative benchmark for most institutions as the majority of those in the sample are exceeding their predicted travel spend based on revenue.
Beyond revenue, leaders may consider their institutions spending on travel, entertainment and staff development in the context of similar institutions, and their institution’s goals.
Where travel, entertainment, and staff development expenditure is not part of an intentional strategy to meet a university’s goals, spending above (or close to) the amount predicted based on revenue may be a good indication that this is budget item requiring closer attention from leadership.
Those universities spending well below their revenue based prediction may consider if a strategic increase in travel, entertainment and staff development spending may help them achieve their goals.
Notes
University of South Australia was the university closest to hitting its predicted spend in travel, entertainment and staff development (TES) expense based on the 2021 data, according to our revenue based model.
That is, when considering how much universities spend on TES relative to their revenue, UniSA may be considered the most “average” because it had the least difference between what it spent and what the model would predict a university with its revenue would spend.
In 2021, University of South Australia spent $3,308,000 on TES which was only $297,159 less than the amount predicted by a simple linear regression model
The linear regression model estimates the relationship between revenue and TES expense based on 2021 data from a sample of Australia public universities
It is cautious to note the data suggests a weak relationship between TES expense and revenue (the simple regression has a coefficient of 0.0042 at 0.0072 p-value and 0.5304 R Squared). This suggests that across the universities reporting, TES expenses may not be managed in line with revenue.
Evidently, in 2021, the University of Newcastle spent $10,532,000 on TES which was $395,000 more than the University of Queensland did. This was despite the fact the University of Newcastle’s revenue was only 39.6% of the University of Queensland’s revenue.
Similarly, Flinders University spent $6,041,000 on TES. Its expense was $2,716,000 more than Edith Cowan University even though both universities had similar revenues ($552,413,000 for Flinders University and $529,911,000 for Edith Cowan University)
By contrast, the model suggests Charles Sturt University, Western Sydney University and Victoria University could spend more on TES given their revenues. The additional amounts as predicted by the model for Charles Sturt University, Western Sydney University and Victoria University are $1,460,650, $1,765,256 and $1,973,037 respectively.
Figures and analysis are based on independently audited annual financial reports of the respective universities.
Due to the significant difference in reporting by Australian public universities, only a sub-set of universities report sufficient data to be included in this analysis.
Across the sample of 12 Australian public universities with sufficient reporting, to calculate Travel, Entertainment and Staff Development, the average spend was $4,247,000 in 2021.
Figures are nominal, quoted in thousands and in Australian dollars