More international students has helped the Southern Institute of Technology to achieve a surplus of almost $2.5 million in 2015.

SIT deputy chief executive corporate Bharat Guha said on Monday at the SIT council's first meeting of the year that the institute had recorded a surplus of $2.46m in 2015.

"The main item where we've over-achieved is overseas student fees," he said.

Guha said the surplus was up about $1m from an budgeted surplus of $1.48 million, and higher than the $715,000 surplus for 2014.

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The surplus meant SIT had cash reserves of $25.19m at the end of 2015, which Guha said meant the institute was in a good financial position.

"We've got a good cash reserve now," he said.

"Our income profile has changed tremendously."

SIT's surplus was $1.40m in 2013, up $805,000 from a budgeted surplus of $603,000. In 2011, SIT had a $2.96 million surplus, $2.16m more than a a budgeted surplus of $801,000.

Also at the meeting, SIT chief executive Penny Simmonds said they had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ningbo Institute of Technology, a technical college associated with the prestigious Zhejiang University, located in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, near Shanghai.

The MoU comes after Simmonds visited the school in May last year, and is one of several SIT has signed with overseas institutions.

Simmonds also said an engineer had examined SIT"s Christchurch campus following the February 14 earthquake. She said no issues were found, and that the campus was considered safe.

The SIT council will meet again in April.