A concentrated effort to reduce costs is paying dividends for the University of Otago, financial services director Grant McKenzie says.
Mr McKenzie said in a financial report tabled at yesterday's council meeting the effort to reduce costs was a ''prudent response to low growth in income''.
The surplus for the year to the end of June was at $10.533 million, which was $3.191 million higher than budget and $2.571 million lower than at the corresponding time last year.
''The surplus for the period to date improved significantly in June, largely due to a concerted effort to reduce costs by all areas of the university,'' Mr McKenzie said.
Total expenditure until the end of June was $289.081 million, which was $4.277 million (1.5%) less than budget.
The report goes into some detail about where savings were made.
''Consumables and general'' was $3.14 million (6.3%) less than budget. This included a $190,000 saving in administration costs, due to a drop in spending on stationery, printing and photocopying because of greater use of electronic communications.
The drop in expenditure was partly offset by lower-than-forecast income, which at $299.614 million, was $1.086 million less than forecast and $1.039 million less than the corresponding time last year.
The drop in income was mainly due to lower-than-expected Performance Based Research Funding and externally-funded research.
