The University of NSW has landed its largest donation to date as competition for top donors to fund research, buildings and scholarships intensifies and as income from international students is expected to fall.
He said donations were becoming increasingly important for universities to fund ambitious programs as government funding continues to decline and research remains highly subsidised through international student fees.“Screening 130,000 women across the Pacific nations is something no one other than UNSW is doing – that’s why these philanthropic donations are absolutely critical for us to do the big societal transformation programs,” Brungs said.
Australian National University higher education expert Professor Andrew Norton said the proportion of revenue to come from donations had risen, but it still paled in significance to universities’ reliance on international students – aNationally, Norton said, donations have become more significant as a share of total revenue and research expenditure, but remain small at 1.6 per cent and 3.6 per cent of respective totals.