How the pandemic affected NYU’s bottom line

NYU’s revenue increased by over $1 billion, despite costs incurred due to the pandemic, associated campus closures, and a year of mostly online instruction.

Carmo Moniz, Tori Morales

As businesses nationwide struggled to stay afloat at the height of the pandemic, NYU’s income did too — revenue from the housing and dining services it provides decreased by 51% between the 2018-19 and 2020-21 academic years. The drop was, in part, due to two semesters of primarily virtual learning, and increased expenditure on health and safety measures enacted in response to COVID-19. But in the same period, the university’s total income rose by 13% — nearly $1.2 billion.

NYU raised its tuition by 2.95% for the 2020-21 period, with tuition and fees making up about 35% of the university’s revenue. The biggest contributors to the university’s $8,915,280,016 in revenue for that year were tuition and fees, patient care, and contributions and grants, which all rose from the previous year. At the time, some students criticized the tuition increase due to widespread economic difficulties during the pandemic.

The university is required to declare its financial status annually by filing Form 990, a federal disclosure for nonprofits that details how an organization spends and earns its money, pays its employees, and more. NYU’s most recent disclosure, released this year, covers the 2020-21 academic year, which marked the university’s gradual return to on-campus instruction after its operations were moved online due to the pandemic.

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