The question says that in 2009 the total lecture staff costs were $41.663M. It also says that 35% of this is the cost of freelance lecturers. Therefore freelance lecturers cost $14.582M in 2009
In 2010, the question says that the freelance costs were $12.394.
Therefore the cost has fallen by $2.188M, which as a % is a fall of 2.188/14.582 = 15%.
Since the question says that the same number of courses were run, and that the same % of them were run by freelance lectures, it means that the fall of 15% is due to paying less which is more than the 10% that the question says they were asking for.