2024 budget

The Social Council of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) approved in its last session, held on 21 December, the budget proposal for 2024 presented by the Governing Council, which provides for the recognition of rights for the institution for an amount of 426,975,325 euros. This amount represents an increase of 5.4% concerning 2023 (405,127,631 euros), with an additional difference of almost 22 million euros (21.84 million).

The president of the Social Council, Mónica Bragado, stressed that these budgets demonstrate "the firm commitment to quality teaching, excellence in research and cutting-edge transfer". In addition, Bragado stressed that these accounts consolidate the projects led by the Social Council in terms of patronage, promotion of STEAM disciplines, and models of relationship with society such as the unit of business orientation in innovation (UNOi).

The UPV's 2024 budget has been formulated in compliance with the principles of budgetary stability and financial sustainability, with balanced income and expenditure and without resorting to any debt operation.

The forecast of the UPV's accounts received the approval of the Valencian Parliament in its session on 20 December, with the assumption of the financial level reached in 2023, which, according to the rector of the UPV, José E. Capilla, "it is good news, which provides us with a secure ground to plan our projects".

LOSU as a conditioning factor

The coming into force last April of the Organic Law of the University System (LOSU) and the absence of the necessary economic contribution for its implementation in the universities has conditioned the preparation of the institution's accounts for 2024 to the point of posing "a threat", in the words of the rector, to the normal development of the budgets.

Capilla once again regretted that the LOSU was made without an economic report and highlighted that the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) had quantified the resources the Spanish university system needs to develop between 850 million and 1,000 million euros. "We are still waiting for answers to the conclusions of the CRUE monograph," he added.

More than 100 million in own resources

By chapters, the main contribution to the UPV's accounts corresponds to chapter 4 of income (current transfers), with 291 million euros mainly coming from funds provided by the Generalitat Valenciana.

The Financial Manager of the UPV, Jesús Marí, highlighted the fact that almost 25% of the UPV's budget comes from tuition fees and the results of R+D+I activities, "which reinforces the idea that the UPV is a socially profitable university that works daily to deepen its commitment as a public service".

The income figure corresponding to the payment of academic fees reflects the constant increase in new student enrolments in recent years. Thus, the expected income from tuition fees for official degrees is more than 34 million euros, and 9.6 million euros for lifelong learning. In this section, it should be noted that in the last two academic years, there has been an increase in enrolled credits of around 6% per year for undergraduate studies and 9% for Master's studies. The latter has higher prices.

The financing of capital transfers corresponding to R+D+i projects in 2024 is estimated at more than 65 million euros, representing an increase of 4.4% over the initial forecast for the previous year.

Improved teaching

Regarding expenditure, chapter 1, corresponding to staff costs, maintains the largest financial allocation (242 million euros), representing 56% of the planned budget.

On the other hand, one of the most significant percentage increases for 2024 is found in the Support Programmes for Academic Improvement, with an additional 46.84% variation compared to 2023 and an investment of more than 15 million euros. "These figures reinforce our commitment to education of the highest quality, confirmed in different rankings, such as the U-Ranking of the BBVA Foundation and the IVIE, which places us in first position in Spain regarding teaching," said Capilla.

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