Aarhus University ended 2024 with a DKK 184 million surplus

In 2023, Aarhus University turned a major deficit into a surplus of DKK 262 million, and 2024 also turns out to have been a good fiscal year for the university. 

According to the newly published 2024 annual accounts, AU closed the annual accounts with a surplus of DKK 184 million.

The surplus consists of DKK 142 million from financial items – returns on the university’s investments in stocks and bonds – and DKK 42 million from operations. That’s significantly more than what the university had originally budgeted. AU had expected to end 2024 with a deficit of DKK 27 million on operations and a surplus of DKK 75 million from financial returns, resulting in a total annual surplus of DKK 48 million. 

External research funding increases 

The surplus from operations is largely due to a DKK 265 million increase in external funding compared to what was budgeted. The external funding covers the use of external grants among the university's researchers. The amount of external research funding received exceeded DKK 3.1 billion – a record high for AU.

In a news release from AU, rector Brian Bech Nielsen says that the inflow of funds gives reason for optimism for the coming years.

“It's hard not to be pleased when positive deviations from the budget are due to increased research activity. Our departments seem to be continuing the excellent development of recent years in securing and using external funding. For example, we’ve managed to secure several grants from the EU’s Horizon Europe framework programme. We should be really proud of that, and I think there is reason to be optimistic about the level and scope of research in the coming years," the rector says. 

Good return on investments despite conservative investment strategy

AU has once again achieved a strong return on its mandatory investments in stocks and bonds. This may be a bit surprising considering the university's change in investment policy from the end of 2022. Following a heavy blow in the bond and stock markets, resulting in a DKK 257 million deficit on its financial items, AU decided to adopt a more conservative investment strategy. After a DKK 187 million surplus on the financial items last year, university director Kristian Thorn explained that such a large surplus wouldn’t be repeated with the new conservative investment policy. However, the surplus on the financial items the following year ended up at DKK 142 million, compared to the expected DKK 75 million.

“In general, we invest our money a lot more cautiously than we did five years ago, and over time, this will probably mean that our returns will be slightly lower. While we’re pleased that the market has been kind to us in 2024, the development of the financial items is something we’ll be keeping an eye on over the years to come," says university director Kristian Thorn in AU’s news release. 

Next week, Omnibus will publish an interview with University Director Kristian Thorn.

This text is machine translated and post-edited by Cecillia Jensen.