Our achievements in 2023/24

We have published our Annual Report for 2023/24, which details a year of continued progress and focus on our digital transformation. 

We have reported a turnover of £833m—2% higher at constant exchange rates than prior year—and a surplus from trading of £113m, an increase of 12%. Reported turnover includes £11m of sales which were supplied early to customers due to the transfer to a new enterprise resource planning system. 

During the year, we continued to embrace new technologies to extend the dissemination of our work, launched new digital products and services, responded to curriculum reforms in many markets, and pursued opportunities relating to artificial intelligence (AI) technologies with careful consideration of its implications for research and education.

Our Academic division increased its global reach, selling in 184 countries and regions, and focusing on improvements to the digital experience for customers. We refreshed the website for the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)—with a further 17,000 senses edited or drafted in 2023/24 alone—and added 7,500 books to the Oxford Scholarship Online archive on the Oxford Academic platform. Revenue from digital content and services now account for 70% of the division’s turnover. 

Working closely with our communities of teachers, education leaders, and schools, our Education division developed and delivered resources in 80 languages, reaching 55 million learners in 157 countries. Highlights include a collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to launch the PISA 2025 Science Framework, which aims to equip young people with scientific competencies that will support their future development; the creation of a series to promote reading among primary school students in Mainland China called Talk about China with Oxford, to be delivered via a digital learning platform; and the launch of EduZone—a pioneering digital learning hub—in Kenya to provide teachers and learners with a personalized learning experience. 

Our digital learning offer also expanded in our English Language Teaching division. Oxford English Hub—our main online platform for teaching and learning English—saw a 300% increase in sessions recorded. We launched Digital Flow, offering a fully digital way of teaching with OUP materials designed for screens to support lessons taught in-person, remotely, or hybrid. We also continued to bring together our communities to share insights and learning through our English Language Teaching Online Conference (ELTOC)—which received record engagement of more than 170,000 views, and downloads of teacher toolkits doubled year-on-year—and a paper offering practical advice to schools on how best to support refugee pupils. 

Reflecting on the year, Nigel Portwood, CEO, said:

“This year we have had to navigate technological, social, and political change, while continuing to support and respond to shifting customer requirements. It has, at times, been challenging, but I am grateful for the continued focus and dedication of colleagues across OUP who have enabled us to achieve so much this year.” 

Find out more about the progress we have made, and the insights and research we shared during the year—including findings on the impact of AI in education and our 2023 Oxford Word of the Year —in our report here.