Although virtually all universities have accounting systems that track every dollar in accordance with the accounting rules required by auditors, these systems are not adequate to inform their leaders or the public about the profit and loss, productivity, or efficiency of their activities. Instead, they obscure the different revenue sources on…

This research compares the status of managerial accounting practices in public four-year colleges and universities and in private four-year colleges and universities. The investigators surveyed a national sample of chief financial officers (CFOs) at two points in time, 1998-99 and 2003-04. In 1998-99 CFOs representing private institutions reported…

This third and final volume of the 2007-08 edition of "Trends" focuses on the resources that Canadian universities have to support their teaching and research activities. The volume begins by comparing the combined funding for teaching and research in Canadian universities with higher education funding in some of its most important…

This memorandum proposes a set of accounts that school districts should maintain as a part of their total accounting system in order to (1) meet the needs of the Office of Education for financial information and (2) to compare their costs with those in other school districts. Labeled the Comparable Cost Information (CCI) by its originators, the…

A long standing debate among policymakers as well as researchers is whether and how funding affects the quality of education. Often missing from the discussion is information about the costs of providing education at the school level and below, yet such information could impart a better indication of the linkages between outcomes and resources…

TECHNIQUES FOR DEVELOPING FINANCIAL AND RELATED COST-EFFECTIVENESS DATA FOR PUBLIC AND PRIVATELY SUPPORTED AMERICAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES WERE STUDIED TO FORMULATE PRINCIPLES, PROCEDURES, AND STANDARDS FOR THE ACCUMULATION AND ANALYSES OF CURRENT OPERATING COSTS. AFTER SEPARATE ANALYSES OF INSTITUTIONAL PROCEDURES AND REPORTS, ANALYTIC UNITS…

Different kinds of financial data are needed by different levels of management and in different areas of support. Accounting principles for nonprofit organizations need to be determined. Accrual accounting principles, fund accounting, restricted and unrestricted funds, etc., are described. (MLW)

This report describes statistical indicators developed by the Council of the Great City Schools and its member districts to measure big-city school performance on a range of operational functions in business, finance, human resources and technology. The report also presents data city-by-city on those indicators. This is the second time that…

A group of French universities modified the NCHEMS accounting method for use in a study of its budget control procedures and cost-evaluation methods. The conceptual differences in French university education (as compared to American higher education) are keyed to the adjustments in the accounting method. French universities, rather than being…

A survey of 120 top independent national liberal arts colleges ranked in "U.S. News and World Report" compared the structure of their financial reports to those of publicly held corporations. Results indicate that the colleges' forms strongly resemble those of corporations, but are not as readable as the corporate forms. (MSE)

The status of university financial reporting was surveyed as an update of a 1976 survey. Of the 100 financial reports analyzed in 1976, 87 were available in 1980, and 39 additional private college reports were assessed. In addition to comparing 16 financial reporting standards used in reports between 1976 and 1980, public and private university…

This book presents ways in which school administrators can identify and redirect school funds to improve student performance. It quantifies the degree of overall financial inequality in the country using figures for all districts and shows how education dollars are currently spent, why these dollars are ineffectual, and how different and more…

By 1992, all states had adopted the Governmental Accounting Standards Board's (GASB) Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP). However, not all governments had implemented them by that date. Points out the advantages and weaknesses of GAAP. Concludes that the uniformity in accounting rules give greater assurance that the information…

Two handbooks that serve as a basis for each state's financial data reporting system for the National Center for Education Statistics are compared as part of the Education Data Improvement Project of the Council of Chief State School Officers. The Project's goal is to improve the quality of data submitted to the common core of data of the Center.…

Guidelines for preparing year-end financial reports are provided for Alabama public university staff to insure that reporting formats produce comparable financial reports and to keep up with recent developments in college accounting and financial reporting. The public institutions comply with two publications issued by the American Institute of…