Prince George, BC – The University of Northern British Columbia Board of Governors has approved a $75 million balanced operating budget for 2015-16. This budget will allow the University to maintain existing service levels while providing time for the development and implementation of new planning processes that will establish future priorities.

The budget illustrates that there are some expected financial pressures facing the University, largely due to declining tuition revenue, reduced government grants, and increasing compensation costs.

To balance the budget, the Board of Governors has approved a number of actions:

• A one-time elimination of allocations to reserves that have sufficient balances to maintain activities at the same level as previous years.
• A temporary decrease to the utilities budget based on last year’s results.
• A temporary increase to the revenue line related to investment income based on prior years’ returns.
• Tuition fee increases of 2%.

“UNBC faces fiscal challenges, and this budget does a very good job of explaining them,” says UNBC President Daniel Weeks. “While we’ve presented a balanced budget for 2015-16, the budget framework sets out a projected deficit of $3.7 million for 2016-17. The mandate from the Board is for administration to lead the process of dealing with this deficit, so we will need to develop some new strategies to address this issue.”

One of the strategies already underway is to ensure the budget development is fully aligned with academic planning," adds Dr. Weeks. "This process is being refined this year to allow more comprehensive budget consultation and planning process to begin this fall."

About 63% of the operating budget for the University is provided by the Government of B.C; some 24% comes from tuition fees. Wages and benefits account for about 70% of the University’s expenditures.

The tuition fee for a full-time undergraduate student will now be $5,010 per year, an increase of about $99 per year.

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Editor’s note: UNBC President Daniel Weeks and Board Chair John Turner will be available at 10:30 a.m. for 15 minutes in the Administration Building Atrium to conduct in-person interviews. Telephone interviews, starting at 1:45 p.m., can be arranged by contacting Matt Wood, Communications and Media Relations Manager.