IELTS Task 1 pie chart: Sources of a university's income
Pie chartAcademic
The question
The pie charts below show where one university's income came from in 1995 and 2025. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
Sources of university income (% of total)
- Government grants
- Tuition fees
- Research contracts
- Donations
- Other
See the figures as a table
| 1995 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Government grants | 62% | 35% |
| Tuition fees | 20% | 41% |
| Research contracts | 10% | 15% |
| Donations | 5% | 6% |
| Other | 3% | 3% |
The figures are invented for practice. They are not real statistics.
Write your answer
Then get an estimated band, with checks on your overview, the key features and every figure.
0 words · 150 more to reach 150
Write your own answer first, then compare. Reading a model before you write tends to make you copy it.
The plan
Key features for the overview
- The university depended far less on government grants.
- Tuition fees overtook grants as the largest source.
How the details are grouped
- 1995
- 2025 and what changed
Model answer
188 wordsThe pie charts compare the sources of a university's income in 1995 and 2025, showing the percentage contributed by each of five sources.
Overall, the university became much less dependent on the government over the thirty-year period. In 1995, state grants provided the majority of its money, but by 2025 tuition fees had become the largest single source of income.
In 1995, government grants made up 62% of the university's income, about three times the contribution from tuition fees (20%). Research contracts supplied a further 10%, while donations and other sources together accounted for just 8%. State funding and fees combined therefore provided over 80% of all funding.
By 2025, the picture had changed considerably. The share coming from government grants had almost halved, to 35%, whereas tuition fees had roughly doubled to 41%, overtaking grants as the main source of funding. Research contracts also grew in importance, rising to 15%. By contrast, the proportions from donations (6%) and other sources (3%) remained small and almost unchanged. Even so, public money and fees together supplied just over three quarters of the total, down from over 80% in 1995.
The highlighted paragraph is the overview. Scored by the MyBandPrep checker on 7 October 2026. An estimate, not an examiner’s mark. How scoring works
Why it works
- Task Achievement
- The overview states the change in one sentence: less reliance on government, and fees taking the top spot. Small categories are grouped (“together accounted for just 8%”) instead of being given equal space.
- Coherence and Cohesion
- A clean before-and-after structure: one paragraph per year. “By 2025, the picture had changed considerably” is a clear signpost into the second half.
- Lexical Resource
- Several ways to say “came from”: provided, made up, supplied, accounted for. Approximations (almost halved, roughly doubled) are used where they are accurate.
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy
- Past perfect for the state of things by 2025, participle clauses (“overtaking grants as…”, “rising to 15%”) and a contrast with “whereas”.
Phrases worth reusing
- became much less dependent on
- the largest single source of income
- made up 62% of the university's income
- the picture had changed considerably
- grew in importance