The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), the country’s only tertiary institution that was established by an Act of Parliament, is buckling under the weight of its obligations, handicapped by insufficient funds from Government and not earning enough from student fees, millions of which are outstanding and, in many instances, uncollectable.

The university’s management says a part of its burden is the fact that the Government transferred a number of public schools, which were previously under the Ministry of Health, to UTech minus the funds and infrastructural resources that are needed to run them. These include West Indies School of Public Health, the Dental Auxiliary School, and Kingston School of Nursing.

According to data presented to the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) of Parliament this week, UTech has been running an operating deficit for six out of the 10 years since it gained university status. Its operational deficit stood at $240 million at the end of the July quarter, but is expected to taper off to $13 million next March. The last time UTech turned a surplus was in 2011.

The Government’s subvention for the university this year is $1.8 billion, almost six-and-a-half times less than the subvention to the University of the West Indies. At the same time, UTech has budgeted to spend $6.5 billion to carry out its mandate during the year.

“Government of Jamaica data indicate that UTech, on a per capita basis, is the least supported tertiary institution in Jamaica based on the fact that the recognised establishment/structure of 20 years ago is still being supported by the Government,” UTech asserted in one of the reports submitted to the PAAC, which it had previously submitted to the finance ministry in its bid to get more support.

The university said it has only been able to “cope” by increasing student fees, which has led to the institution being a relatively high cost option for students; and putting on hold, expenditure critical to the delivery of its programmes. “And now there are glaring deficiencies in the support structure needed to honour our mandate,” UTech said.

It was also revealed that six of the university’s 16 undergraduate schools are in trouble, unable to generate enough income to cover their combined $2.5 billion in administrative expenses, and $318 million in utilities. “Many of our costs are denominated in United States dollars and impact the bottom line when the Jamaican dollar devalues,” the report said.

“We find that it is mainly the technical areas that operationally are in deficit,” acting president of UTech Professor Colin Gyles explained to the committee. “There are some areas that do not require as much – those are surplus centres and, to a large extent, from the surpluses from those centres we are able to almost subsidise the technical areas. We repeatedly appeal for additional support. We are at pains to point out that the world over, technology-focused institutions are more heavily funded than generalist institutions, and if UTech is to continue being the kind of technically focused institution that we have been trying to be it really requires greater investment.”

Gyles also pointed out that UTech’s information technology systems are old. “Our students complain about the fact that our computers need changing out, but the capital investment to do that, we really don’t have it,” he stated, while at the same time explaining that four of the struggling faculties have been targeted for specific intervention this year.

Added to this, the university is owed $802 million in students’ fees that have not been collected. This includes a provision of $315 million owed by students who are not currently registered.

“The university survives in the short term as we are not being called upon immediately to settle some current liabilities, primarily accrued vacation which is over $0.5 billion,” the report said.

In his remarks to the committee as to how UTech would survive on scarce resources with a growing population, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education Dr Maurice Smith stated that “Neither the ministry nor the leadership are of the view that UTech is anywhere near its optimal,” and that he has indicated to the university’s management that “UTech needs to be reimagined”. He said steps are being taken to secure support from Cabinet towards stabilising the university’s financial affairs.