2011 Hertford College Magazine (Issue 91)

The Bursar’s letter
Simon Lloyd
As the smoke starts to clear from the
tuition fee furore, our initial assessment
suggests the net financial impact
on the College will be broadly neutral.
The £9,000 a year undergraduate tuition
fee for entry from October 2012 will be
matched by a generous package of tuition
fee waivers and bursaries intended to ensure
students from financially disadvantaged
backgrounds are not deterred from
applying. This means the current deficit
on undergraduate academic provision will
persist. This is before taking into account
any unintended consequences of a potential
adverse impact on postgraduate intake.
In the interim HEFCE funding for the current
cohorts of undergraduates is expected
to be withdrawn faster than the new funding
arrangements are established. Given
high inflation, persistent cost pressures
and a fragile economic environment, the
scene is set for the strategic and financial
challenges the College is grappling with.
Fortunately the College is facing into
this uncertain period ahead in reasonably
good financial health. The financial highlight
of the year has undoubtedly been another
stunning performance from our International
Programmes team, led by Julie
Dearden. Income from conference and
English language summer schools is expected
to be 20% higher than last year and
55% or £665,000 higher than two years
ago. New customers have been won in Japan,
Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, and
existing customers are coming back in bigger
numbers. This is keeping everybody
extremely busy through the long vacation
providing over 15,000 bed nights and
50,000 meals across four kitchens. This
has more than offset lower academic income
as a result of HEFCE tuition fund-
HERTFORD COLLEGE MAGAZINE
Hertford year: Bursar’s letter
ing cuts and slightly lower numbers of
undergraduates. As a result, the College
is expected to report a surplus this year.
The College’s endowment is also in
better shape. This is not because of rising
share prices over the last year, as these
gains could easily evaporate in the current
climate. It reflects more the College’s efforts
to adjust the balance of the total return
objective between income generation and
capital growth and is supported by a post
recession restoration of company dividend
growth. Under the guidance of Investment
Bursars Pat Roche and Steve New a clear
statement of the College’s investment principles
has been established. Last summer a
number of leading fund managers were invited
to bid for discretionary management
of the College’s investment portfolio. We
were greatly helped in the selection process
by the Old Members on our Investment
Advisory Board, and in particular by Richard
Fidler (Economics and Management,
1998). The outcome of what proved to be
an educative as well as competitive process
was that Rathbones was duly appointed.
The work of the Development Office
is reported elsewhere, but as fund raising
is such a vital component in the College’s
long term financial security, it would be remiss
of me to omit to report on the encouraging
increase in the level of donations
this year in response to appeals for funds
to endow History and Economics fellowships
and to fund bursaries and scholarships.
We have a great deal more to do to
meet our three-year target to raise £3.6m
for these activities, but thanks to the generosity
of donors we have made a good start.
All these encouraging developments
gave the College confidence to purchase
and renovate a six-bedroom house near
Folly Bridge, adjacent to other College annexes,
to support student accommodation
and conference business. This is the first
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