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Â鶹´«Ã½'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 Â鶹´«Ã½â€™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 Â鶹´«Ã½, 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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