The reform of the accounting information system of Italians universities. A proposal of analysis of the new model budget
The reform of the financial accounting system in Italian Academia. A first assessment of the University settings and performance through the analysis of the renewed financial reporting.
In the context of a wider redesign of Italian university information systems, the shifting from the cash to the accrual accounting approach represents a radical change on the ways to communicate financial and economic information to the stakeholders. At the same time, this also implies an overall transformation of Universities’ internal and external relationships. Such revolutionary changes are determining, in fact, significant modifications both for organizational mechanisms and for decision-making processes. In particular, new priorities seem to shape the governance system, as well as the relationships between the Dean and the other institutional bodies: Board of Directors and Academic Governing Council (Senato Accademico), in particular. The introduction of new tools for external communication offers, therefore, a different representation of university’s structure and performance, affecting the interactions between University and its stakeholders. With the aim to explore such changes, we propose a preliminary analysis of the renewed financial reporting – according to the reform of D.M. n. 9/2014 – of a sample of Italian Universities. In particular will be considered the income statements and the balance sheets at 30 April 2015.
Keywords: university, accrual accounting, financial reporting, accounting change.
