Modul de formare-Managementul resurselor financiare - uefiscdi

example, for the estimation of cost related to libraries or laboratories - can be used the students
number as a factor of costs, such as the increasing student number to cause the need of
additional financial resources to cover the costs of library or computer labs. The resulting
allocation is, however, a draft due to the fact that these costs are far more complex.
An alternative, but similar approach is to split the cost of higher education institution in three
categories:
academic services;
real estate/ the places specifically intended to serve the education activities;
central administration
The costs associated to the academic services may be covered by allocating resources based on
the formula that reflects both the staff and students number or other priorities such as losses
cover. The education costs with estates service for educational activities have cost parameters
such as space occupied, age of buildings, security requirements etc.. The central administration
costs have as determining factors the staff and student numbers to determine a percentage rate at
which central costs are charged for each faculty.
The top-slicing model is used by many universities in the UK with slight differences in its
approach 27 . Thus, Imperial College, University of London is a top-ranking university oriented
toward research. In the academic year 2006-2007 the university received total gross income of
over 187 million pounds, but despite the high level of funding, the university still uses the topslicing
model to cover the its central overhead costs, which are described as infrastructure costs
(infrastructure charge). As a result, the net income allocated down to the academic departments
summed 93 million pounds, implying a top slicing rate of almost 50%. In case of University of
Cambridge, ranked first in the UK for research, the financial resource allocation model is
similar to the one of Imperial College, University of London, but the central overhead costs are
known as residual funds for strategic use. Their share is 50% of the total revenues and a part of
the funds are discretionary used to cover the academic schools deficits.
The Activity Based Costing model - ABC highlights the cause and effect relationship between
the services being provided and the related costs. The model has been criticized for the lack of
evidence of tangible benefits in the private sector, therefore in 1998, 75% of the UK higher
education institutions have rejected its use or its introduction.
Taking into account the relative merits of the different methods of allocating costs we have to
mention that these reflect the different budget control approaches. Regarding the overhead costs
allocation on academic units, the decision of budgetary control is at the centre, at the
administrative department of the university. The institutional transparency is limited, because
the basis for the top slice calculation can be withheld by senior management. There are opinions
that support the models that provide the faculty with the ability to manage the direct costs while
at the centre is kept the responsibility for the budget control of the central or joint department.
According to other views, it is recommended the approach and the use of the cumulative
budgets in which the information regarding the costs should be available at the courses level,
study programs, departmental or faculty level. Such model is presented below.
27 Woods, M (2008) The theory, history and practice of resource allocation models in UK universities. The Journal
of Finance and Management in Colleges and Universities, 5(6), 139-155, p. 13.
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