Drafting a budget for the summer school is a crucial step in the organization of the summer school programme or course. It is essential to plan all the fixed and variable costs of the course carefully and to implement a strategy to cover those costs. Incomes are usually generated by students’ fees, but institutional or external subsidies can be raised as well to reduce costs and/or increase profits. Implementing a summer school programme or course is a mid-term project, so take into account that the first profits will possibly only be generated after the second or third edition of the summer school.
1. Basic principles
Drafting an accurate budget for a summer school, including all provisional costs and incomes, is essential to generate profits or at least to prevent losses. The budget can be drawn up using a ‘full costs approach’ or an ‘additional costs approach’. The full costs approach consists in calculating all costs for the organization and implementation of the summer school programme or course, including overheads (e.g. general administration, facilities not directly linked to the summer school, salaries of IRO staff which are not covered by the summer school income, etc.). The additional costs approach consists in calculating only the costs directly connected to the organization of the summer school itself. This could be an easier way to start, especially when it is only a single summer school course and not a full programme, but it is less accurate.
Before starting the organization of the summer school, keep in mind that the initial costs must be invested and advanced by the organizing institution, since the incomes and potential profits only materialize in a later stage, after participant enrolment or even after the summer school has finished. Even if you have external sponsors, these resources rarely reach the organizing institution before the summer school actually starts.
2. Types of costs
A budget for an entire summer school programme is different from a budget for a single summer school course. The former usually includes the costs needed for a dedicated summer school office, while this is not usually included in the budget of a single summer school course. By centralizing some costs, such an office can offer advantageous prices because of the economies of scale effect (for promotion, negotiated prices for social programmes, transportation, etc.). In any case, there are fixed costs and variable costs per student to take into account.
Fixed costs include:
– Facilities, such as the lecture rooms, IT, etc.
– Tutor of the summer school
– Teaching staff, if paid
– Invited guest speakers/teachers, if relevant
– Promotional campaign, including travel costs if the summer school is promoted at higher education fairs or by visiting partner universities, staff costs for a focused communication strategy such as creating a database of possible partners to target, preparing texts, sending emails, etc.
– Design and maintenance of the summer school website and other promotional material (brochure, flyers, etc.)
Variable costs per student include:
– Course materials (textbooks, notebooks, copies, etc.)
– Accommodation
– Meals
– Excursions and social programme
3. Incomes
The income for a summer school usually includes:
– University subsidies
– Contributions from external sponsors
– Students’ fees, which cover the majority of the costs or even exceed the costs
4. Fundraising campaign
The first step after the conceptualization of the school is to launch a fundraising campaign at your own institution and among external sponsors that might be interested in supporting the school. Financial support in kind from local stakeholders may lead to cost reductions, such as the municipality or a local association providing premises for free in exchange for visibility. This type of cost reduction can help increase profits or reduce the student’s fee, which makes the summer school more appealing to potential participants.
5. Student’s fee
After you have established how much internal and external funding you will receive, the student’s fee can be set. This involves defining the ‘selling costs’ of the summer school. Since the costs of the summer school must be covered in full by fees and subsidies, it is essential to define the minimum number of registered students needed to allow the summer school to go ahead. This means that if the minimum number of participants is not reached, the summer school might be cancelled. The fee must be set taking into account the defined minimum number of participants and the calculated fixed and variable costs.
6. Starting with some losses
Keep in mind that developing a summer school programme or course with the aim of generating profits (to be reinvested in internationalization) is a medium- or even long-term plan. The first edition of a summer school rarely generates profits. If all of the costs of the first summer school are covered, it must be considered a success. For this reason, if the first edition manages to attract some students, even if numbers are lower than planned, it is advisable to make all efforts to ensure the summer school can go ahead rather than cancelling. Despite the financial losses incurred, the organizational team will learn a lot from the first experience based on an in-depth evaluation of all the organizational aspects.
Positive effects from the implementation of the summer school include:
– Promotional campaign: evaluation will show which channels are most effective
– Participating students can serve as ambassadors, promoting the summer school among their peers
– The more experienced the organizing team becomes, the more efficiently they can manage the processes
– Stakeholders will become ‘allies’, which makes it easier to include them in the organization and reduce costs
This article has been inspired by the publication: “International Summer Schools” EAIE toolkit n° 5, edited by Jeroen Torenbeek and Inez Meurs. The authors of the booklet have also been involved in the IMPALA project as trainers.