Developing an Academic Performance Reporting Model for a Centralized University

Abstract

Higher education faces increasing challenges regarding economics, efficiency and accountability. To assist administrators, staff and faculty developing management accounting systems (MAS), this paper presents a model of an MAS that reports profitability of academic programs at a university with centralized decision making. The model contains measures of profitability appropriate for both academic programs (e.g., majors) and for departments. The paper describes difficulties regarding the calculation of net tuition revenues, faculty costs, and other expenses. The paper also includes authors’ recommendations related to allocation decisions. An example demonstrates how the model rolls lower levels into higher academic units.