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Dalhousie's Board of Governors approved the university’s 2023-24 Operating Budget at its meeting this Tuesday.ÌýThe full budget plan is now available at dal.ca/budget.
 
The operating budget funds the day-to-day operations of the university. It also covers compensation for faculty and staff, scholarship support, maintenance to campus buildings, funding for our libraries, and all the other day-to-day costs of running the university. 
 
The approved budget plan reflects Dalhousie’s spending priorities and how the university can best allocate resources to advance its mission and strategic priorities. It also reflets the core budget challenge the university faces annually: that operating costs rise at a faster rate than government funding, which creates a gap that must be addressed each year by increasing revenue (predominantly through tuition fees, which make up the biggest source of revenue) and/or by adjusting expenditures. 
 
The 2023-24 Operating Budget is balanced at $558.7 million, and includes the following:

• Faculty and unit budgets will increase by a total of $25 million. As this amount does not fully cover the expected increase in expenditures, all Faculties and units will be asked to address a 1.5% budget gap.
• Tuition fees for domestic students will increase 3%. For returning international students, the overall average tuition increase will be 7.5%. New international undergraduate students in select faculties will be part of the new guaranteed tuition model approved by the Board back in November. 
• Nearly $1.2 million increase in student assistance: just under $700,000 from operating funds and $500,000 more from endowment revenue.
  
• $4 million increase to facilities renewal funding to improve campus spaces
• $4 million dedicated to addressing accessibility and changing code modifications
• Investments in cybersecurity and research security
• A 2% inflationary increase for IT and classroom infrastructure
  

A draft version of the budget plan was shared with the Dal community for feedback and input in January. The Budget Advisory Committee, which oversees the budget planning process at pilipiliÂþ»­, has summarized this feedback and discussed its impact on the final budget plan in its March 2023 report, available online .
 
For more information on the Dal budget, visit dal.ca/budget
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