The accounts show that the university earned 2.3m from its catering operations in the first year of the new in-house arrangements . . .the 12 months to 30 September 2005 . . . while its salary bill increased by under 600,000 during the same period.

According to a presentation by the university's president Ferdinand von Prondzynski to the European University Association last year, the catering unit, which operates six oncampus restaurants, has been given "aggressive revenue targets".

Last year, it was the subject of a boycott by the university's students' union, which claimed that the university was overcharging students.

The dispute, which lasted two months, was resolved after the university agreed to introduce new value meals in its canteens.

Meanwhile, the university earned 3.6m during the year from the Helix, its 36.5m arts centre, which opened in 2002, up from 2.9m the previous year.

However, DCU's main commercial source of income in 2005 was the rental of on-campus accommodation to its students. Despite increasing competition from the private sector, the university increased its rental income from students to 3.9m compared to 3.5m the previous year.

But despite the performance of its catering and rental divisions, the company made a loss of 3,596 in 2005, compared with a profit of 409,657 the previous year.

This was mainly due to a significant decrease in the amount of building activity that occurred at the university that year as City Research and Development sells construction services to other campus companies. Its income from construction fell from 23.3m in 2004 to 2.1m in 2005.