priority focus on redefining what pastoral care means in 2025 and beyond, given the complexities and pressures faced by our students and our staff. We see the need for further investment in learning support, our counselling team, and in our people and culture function where the wellbeing of all who work or study at College is enhanced. The ongoing development of our campus will remain a key priority. As for the past year, reflected in the financial update to 31 January 2024, the operational result is disappointing when compared with the prior year. A trading deficit of $1.3 million is not what we budgeted for at the start of the year. Some of the deficit can
be explained by the increased interest cost incurred on the funds we have borrowed for Upper West. We also had several exceptional and non-recurring expenses associated with last year’s independent investigation. However, the overall result, that includes the revenue generated from the Foundation, is an improvement on last year, largely built on the strong performance of the financial markets. The strength of the Foundation again emphasises what an important role it plays in funding our scholarship programme and otherwise supporting College. The trading deficit also reflects the first year of the reduction of the distribution from the Foundation
by a reallocation and prioritisation of our financial resources. On reflection, we may have been too ambitious in our hope that College could operationally absorb the reduction. The resetting of the Foundation distribution policy is though key to our financial sustainability. As the distribution to College continues to be reduced over the next two years, we will meet our goal of protecting the real value of the Foundation capital but maintaining the Foundation’s support for our scholarship programme. Our aspiration is to grow the Foundation’s value to circa $100m over the next 15 years and we are on track to achieve that with the careful stewardship of the
COLLEGE 2024
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