This paper compares and contrasts different strategies to balance academic institutions' operating budgets. Some strategies use economic theory to recommend a budgeting technique, others use management methods to cut cost, and some strategies use a management accounting approach to reach a balanced budget. Through the use of a simplified numerical…

Colleges and universities are thinking strategically about their business models. Reductions in state and federal appropriations, endowment volatility, fundraising uncertainties, and limits on tuition increases are creating persistent shortfalls in operating budgets. This all comes when institutions are being called upon to enroll and graduate…

This paper reviews and examines approaches to determining the financial viability of academic programmes as a critical component of assessing a programme's overall sustainability. Key to assessing the financial viability of a programme is understanding the teaching activities required to deliver the programme and the cost of those activities. A…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss how activity-based costing (ABC) technique can be applied in the context of higher education institutions. It also discusses the obstacles and challenges to the successful implementation of activity-based management (ABM) in the higher education environment. Design/methodology/approach: This paper…

This article estimates the costs of school finance adequacy in each of the 50 states and Washington, D.C. by applying the recommendations from an evidence-based model to the student characteristics of each individual state. Using two different prices, (a) the national average teacher salaries adjusted by a comparable wage index and (b) individual…

Analyzes the real operating costs of child care centers providing quality care in order to establish a model from which funding agencies and child administrators can plan and evaluate budgets to enhance the quality of child care. (Author/MP)

This paper presents a model of the approaches open to government to ensure that early childhood services are affordable to families. We derived the model from a comparative literature review of affordability approaches taken by government, both in Australia and internationally. The model adds significantly to the literature by proposing a means to…

A model of departmental support expenditures is constructed. The requirements for administrative and technical staff and for operating funds of a university's academic units were analyzed, and these were related to a number of quantitative characteristics of the units. (Author/MLW)

The issue of whether institutions of higher education should cost account space and physical plant operating and maintenance expenses to their academic programs is examined. Space costing is cited as a philosophical base for cost accounting space, operating, and maintenance expenses to the individual academic unit of an institution. (Author/MLW)

Presents a "profit" model for continuing education (in a university setting but applicable to all continuing education operations) based upon the organization of profit and cost centers to help develop an administrative structure and control mechanisms to achieve profit planning. Tables illustrate different elements in the model. (MF)

Multiple factors are changing the underlying financial structure of higher education in America to a form much like the structure now used for adult degree programs. This change is likely to have profound effects on institutional behavior and public policy.

The authors discuss a method to increase institutional efficiency and financial stability through strategic planning, by gradually reallocating funds raised for annual operations to quasi-endowment over a period of years using a weaning model. The weaning model is offered as a tactic to address issues of financial vulnerability developed in…

Describes a model enumerating cost factors for comparing costs for paper, online, and CD-ROM indexes and abstracts. The model is applied to start-up and annual costs, and to the cost of storing and providing access to ERIC, Applied Science and Fisheries Abstracts, and Excerpta Medica, based on anticipated academic library usage. (MBR)

Financial indicators to describe and measure the condition of colleges and universities are discussed including: determining capital charges against current revenues, analyzing revenue structures, dissecting the expenditure structure, and restating current fund revenues and expenditures. (MLW)

Maintenance and operations (M&O) requirements dominate the life-cycle cost of a school facility. Historically, facility managers have struggled to secure funding to meet these requirements. Many deferred-maintenance issues result directly from M&O underfunding. However, new approaches and technologies now enable facility managers to use…