Analysis of university financial statements
The adoption of accrual accounting by Italian universities opens a wealth of new financial information. However, these financial statements remain difficult to interpret, due to the specific management of universities, and the statutory choices in defining the reporting formats. This article suggests a better presentation format of the information reported in university financial statements. For each of the three statements — i.e., income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement — the analysis involves:
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describing the main features of the mandatory statement, in order to highlight its peculiarities, application and issues in interpretation;
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identifying the most suitable format to reclassify the statements of universities, to extract consistent and relevant information on their conditions and performance. This could foster greater awareness of the financial statements of universities among the governing bodies and external stakeholders of universities, as well as improving the tools used by scholars to analyse the university system.
Keywords: financial statement analysis, university.
