Said Business School in £5 million of debt
The Said Business School has generated a £5 million financial deficit, The Oxford Student has learnt. Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act covering the financial year 2004-2005 revealed a disparity of almost £900,000.
As the School prepares to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its worldclass one year MBA, administrators have admitted that it has failed to break even in every financial year, despite funding from controversial donors, Oxford University and the British Government. The University loaned the School £5 million for the cost of the construction, for which they have not been reimbursed. Ironically, the School have also found themselves in the red by approximately this amount.
While the number of graduate students on the School’s renowned MBA has increased from around 60 in 1999 to almost 300 at the present time, staff have admitted that the deficit of £859,687 created last year was one of the largest since the institute was established. Head of Administration Richard Briant told The Oxford Student, “The University has funded the revenue costs of setting up the Business School. We at the Business School are expected to repay these funds as we begin to make money.
“We expect to end on a surplus this year. This will be the first time this has happened since the School opened. Cumulatively a deficit has built up every year since the School began.” He added, “Once we start to make a surplus, then we will be able to start repaying the University for the initial set-up costs of the School.
The accounts of the Said Business School reveal that last year it received over £800,000 in RMA Income, a system by which the University distributes subsidies among its constituent institutions. The government’s Higher Education Fund provided a further £168,000 for the running of the School, which included expenses such as pay and construction. The University has been criticised for the funding of the Business School in the past.
The construction of the School’s current building was largely based on a £20 million donation from Wafic Sayid, who was mediator in the Al-Yamamah arms deal to Saudi Arabia. A petition from the 1990s gathered over 10,000 signatures in protest against the site’s construction, while a 2001 anti-capitalism demonstration witnessed a protester scaling the building and unfurling a “Built with Blood Money” banner.
OUSU Council passed a motion in 2004 ending all student union events organised to take place in the school, describing Said as a “an infamous arms dealer”. Supermarket magnate Lord Sainsbury gave the School a multimillion pound boost in 1999. The School’s renowned MBA course, which charges students £26,000 a year, on top of a college fee of £3,000, was this year by ranked by the Financial Times as the best oneyear programme in the country.
At the time of its establishment, the MBA’s director Dr Richard Whittington said, “The MBA has got off to a great start with a record number of applicants and the best cohort of students in the UK.
18th May 2006