University of Galway spent almost €500,000 on rebranding

The University of Galway spent €480,000 on its rebranding over a two-year period with an expected additional outlay this year, according to its annual report for 2022.

The report shows the university posted a surplus of €1.36 million for the 12 months to the end of September last.

The institution changed its trading name to the University of Galway on September 1st.

“This was the result of a major university wide project involving expert lead market analysis and extensive stakeholder engagement,” college bursar, Sharon Bailey, said.

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Ms Bailey states that the costs of rebranding in 2021/22 were €362,000 and this followed a spend of €118,000 in 2020/21.

She said: “Further costs are also expected to be incurred during the 2022/23 financial year.”

In a “commendable performance”, the university recorded the surplus after revenues increased by 2.6 per cent from €350.7 million to €360 million, with academic fees making up the largest proportion at €132.9 million, followed by research grants and contracts at €72.36 million and €65.02 million received in State grants.

In her report, Ms Bailey documents the impact a cyber incident had on the operation of the university in September 2021.

She stated that the cyber incident presented challenges in collecting academic fees while “research activity at the start of the year was significantly impacted” by it, “which resulted in delays in recruitment and procurement”.

[ Galway Pulse crowned Newspaper of the Year at Student Media Awards ]

In a separate report attached to the accounts, University president, professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, and chairperson, Dr Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, outline a suite of 10 measures completed or under way taken in response to the cyber incident.

They state the measures involve “enhanced perimeter defence systems” deployed to protect against external threats to internal systems. As well as that, they said that two security posts – head of IT security and IT security officer – have been approved.

The consolidated accounts also disclose that college income from student accommodation rebounded by 80 per cent from €5.05 million to €9.07 million after the pandemic impact of the prior year.

Numbers employed increased from 2,525 to 2,650 as the university staff costs increased from €182.61 million to €190.98 million.

Nine staff received salaries in excess of €200,000 and the number included the president whose salary totalled €209,104.