Total income grew by £163.2 million (12.3%) in 2024–25 to £1,492.6 million, with increases in all sources other than funding body grants which fell by £7.0 million to £158.4 million.
Funding body grants
Funding body grants (from the Office for Students and Research England) amounted to £158.4 million (2024: £165.4 million). The core recurrent teaching and research grants which make up 84% of the total amount were broadly similar to the corresponding prior year figures, with the reduction partly being in capital funding (2025: £16.7 million; 2024: £18.9 million) and in various fixed-term initiatives, for example the International Science Partnerships Fund, for which no new income was received.
2024–25 Income by source (£ million)
Funding body grants income (£million)
Tuition fees and education contracts
This was the first year in which student numbers have not grown in headcount terms for at least 20 years. There was a 9% fall in part-time students (177 lower at 1,747) which reflected market conditions rather than being planned. Intake numbers on our full-time programmes were up at both undergraduate and postgraduate taught level, though were lower at postgraduate research level. The graduation of the tail-end of larger cohorts admitted during the pandemic impacted the overall numbers.
Our withdrawal rate for all students remains very low at 1% (2024: 1%). We consider this to be a strong indicator of the value our students receive from their experience at Imperial and that they receive sufficient support to enable them to finish their course.
Total fee income from home fee-paying students was down marginally last year (2025: £97.8 million; 2024: £98.2 million), with home undergraduate fees capped at £9,250 per annum for the eighth year in a row. If tuition fees had kept pace with consumer price inflation over that time, they would now be around £12,300. They will rise to £9,535 for the 2025–26 academic year.
Income from overseas fee-paying students increased by £42.1 million to £407.9 million (2024: £365.8 million). This compares to a year-on-year increase of £49.6 million the year before. Overseas tuition fees represented 80.7% of the total tuition fee income (2024: 78.8%).
The split between home fee-paying and overseas fee-paying students is still being impacted by the legacy of Brexit. The number of full-time EU students entitled to pay home fees reduces each year, which accounts for the apparent drop in the number of home fee-paying students. Full-time UK student numbers were up in all categories last year.
We continue to see high demand for our educational programmes. The number of undergraduate applications is rising steadily (7.0% increase between 2023–24 and 2024–25) and there was a significant increase in the number of postgraduate applications (13.2%). As a result, the ratio of applications to the number of students we enrol has grown at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.
The biggest growth in applications at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels came from UK students. As we diversify our overseas student intakes, we are seeing higher applicant numbers from some of our strategic markets, for example a 12% increase at both undergraduate and postgraduate level from India.
Income from short courses again grew significantly, up 21% (2025: £20.9 million; 2024: £17.3 million). This was Imperial Lifelong Learning’s first full year of operation, offering advanced skills training through a wide range of courses.
Investment income
Investment income comprises interest received on cash balances and income earned on investment assets. The interest received on cash held in bank accounts was slightly down on the previous year (2025: £20.0 million; 2024: £20.8 million) reflecting the lower interest rates earned on deposits.
The main driver of the year-on-year increase in investment income (2025: £34.8 million; 2024: £28.9 million) was the £7.2 million income related to the sale of a biotech “spin-out”.
Other income
Other income comes from a variety of sources including student accommodation, recharges to the NHS for staff time, consultancy work, catering and conferences and rental income from commercial property, with much of this income offset by related expenditure. Total other income of £223.5 million in 2024–25 was up £28.1 million on the prior year (2024: £195.4 million), with property-related transactions responsible for most of the increase. For example, we received a one-off payment of £15.2 million from a tenant to surrender their lease early on an asset managed within Imperial’s Unitised Scheme (see later section on “gains on investments” for more about the Unitised Scheme).
Total tuition fee income (£million) Home students
Total tuition fee income (£million) Overseas students
Ratio of applications to enrolled student numbers (UG)
Ratio of applications to enrolled student numbers (PGT, PGR, MRes)
Research grants and contracts
Having grown at an annualised rate of 3.3% over the previous four years, a £50.7 million (12.8%) increase in research income last year was noteworthy (2025: £447.4 million: 2024: £396.7 million). However, a significant contributor was the fact that we closed more awards than we ordinarily do in a year ahead of a planned system change in 2026–27. There is always a time lag between research finishing on an award and completing the associated administrative activity, but we accelerated the latter to minimise the need to migrate such legacy awards.These additional amounts mainly appeared in overhead income which increased by £21.8 million (2025: £112.1 million; 2024: £90.3 million).
There was still significant growth in the volume of research activity undertaken in 2024–25 and we had another strong year of winning new research awards. The research order book as at the end of the year was £1,008 million (2024: £1,005 million).
The largest increase in activity was in the research we do with our partners in Imperial College NHS Trust, including work funded by the Biomedical Research Council (£8 million year-on-year increase). Although the activity related to European Commission awards again appeared to fall, some of the European Commission awards are still being funded via the UK Government’s EU Underwrite scheme and are reported as either Government or Research Council income in the financial statements.
Donations and endowments
The £74.6 million of donations and endowments recognised during the year (2024: £35.5 million) was the highest since 2019. Both the overall level of donations and the purposes for which funds are donated show high variability year-on-year. For example, this year there were no capital donations, whereas there had been £12.7 million recognised in the prior year. However, research donations increased from £5.5 million in 2023–24 to £24.9 million this year. New endowments also grew from £2.7 million in 2023–24 to £30.1 million, the largest being a very generous £25 million to support academic recruitment and PhD studentships in the Business School over the coming years.
Income from donations and endowments is only recognised in the financial statements when any associated conditions have been met; the amount pledged in a year will typically differ from this. During the year Imperial received donation pledges totalling £77.5 million from 3,598 individuals and organisations, including nearly 3,000 alumni, highlighting a commitment to advancing education, fostering innovation and supporting world-leading research. Further information can be found in our Impact of Giving report.