Spending on UK higher education providers increased by 6 per cent in 2014-15 to ?31.2 billion, new figures show.
Details of the latest increase – worth around ?1.8 billion in total – were released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, which indicates the sector's grew even faster.
Some ?33.2 billion in income was received by UK higher education in the last full academic year, up from ?30.7 billion , an 8.1 per cent rise, the latest Hesa information published on 28 April shows.
That came despite a reduction in income from funding council grants, which accounted for ?5.3 billion in 2014-15 (17.2 per cent of total income) compared with ?6.1 billion (19.8 per cent of total income) in 2013-14.
Monies from tuition fees and education contracts (?15.6 billion) were significantly up on 2013-14 (?13.7 billion) – with just over a quarter of this (27 per cent) coming from international students (?4.2 billion).
International fee income accounted for 12.7 per cent of the sector’s income – the same proportion as in 2013-14, though the total income was 8 per cent higher in actual terms (?3.9 billion was raised in 2013-14).
Income from research grants and contracts (?5.9 billion) is now more than that awarded by funding councils (?5.3 billion), which just five years ago were the largest source of funding for higher education (handing out 33.7 per cent of all income in 2009-10).
The total amount of money received from European Union sources was ?836 million (2.5 per cent of all higher education income) compared with ?789 million in 2013-14 (2.6 per cent).
On expenditure, some 55 per cent of money went on staff costs (?17.1 billion) compared with ?16.3 billion in 2013-14 (55 .4 per cent).
Some ?3.6 billion was spent on university premises and ?1.6 billion on residences and catering operations.
