The role of cost accounting in the university performance measurement in Portugal

Cost accounting is aimed at emphasising those elements of costs and profits of original importance to the management board of an organizational unit. Therefore, cost accounting was initially understood as mere collector of costs and profits, using the traditional system of costing everything, a budget with a limited base. Originally, it was designed to calculate real costs with the aim to determine the results. In public organizations, the aim of cost accounting, costs or management, can be summarized as follows: o Obtain information of how costs are found, both the ones corresponding to the internal activities as well as those for external services rendered and the cost realized investments; o Obtain information for cost and control management, with efficiency indicators of how the planned objectives were achieved and the efficient use of available resources. This paper aims at knowing the role of cost accounting in the public sector of higher education, and checks its contribution for the establishment of the management indicators in public institutions of higher education.Cost Accounting, management, indicators, education

O capital intelectual no sector público

Com a denominação de Capital Intelectual pretende-se reconhecer o conjunto de activos intangíveis de que dispõe uma organização. Os administradores das entidades públicas gerem activos intangíveis, tanto ou mais que os seus colegas das empresas privadas, o que justifica o seu crescente interesse nos progressos do Capital Intelectual. É, de qualquer modo, um tanto difícil aplicar ao sector público modelos desenhados para as empresas, tanto mais que os objectivos das administrações públicas diferem das empresas privadas, como a maximização do resultado ou a criação de valor para o accionista. Os recursos humanos, com os seus conhecimentos, habilidades e atitudes são fundamentais para que a entidade atinja os seus objectivos. A determinação do Capital Intelectual permite o estabelecimento de objectivos realistas assim como a pronta resolução dos problemas. Este trabalho é de duplo objectivo: analisar os distintos critérios propostos na literatura para diferenciar entre tipos de Capital Intelectual e propor um modelo de Capital Intelectual adaptado às características especiais do sector público. Apresentam-se também alguns indicadores de gestão do Capital Intelectual destinados ao sector público, agrupados em várias categorias

Transparency and Accountability in Portuguese Public Universities

Universities are one of the most important institutions in our society. They are knowledge-creating organizations that contribute to the social and economic development of society through new concepts, ideas, applications, and inventions. They play a key role in social criticism, identifying key issues and contributing to informed public debates. Governance is a relatively new concept in the approach to the literature on public management. It is related to the way in which a society or organization is governed or to the creation of conditions for the existence of a social order, triggered by collective actions. In this article we will study the models of university governance and analyze the problem of accountability in its context, with a view to assessing the transparency with which financial information is currently disseminated in Portugal, by public Higher Education Institutions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Corporate Governance and Internatial Audit in Public Higher Education Institutions in Portugal

Governance covers a comprehensive analysis of how higher education is governed. Governance comprises a complex set of aspects such as the legal framework, the features of the institutions, the form of relationship with the whole system, the funding model, as they are being held accountable on how money is spent and the less formal structures and relationships that affect behavior.The radical changes in the university environment, has imposed changes within the higher education institutions (HEIs). The massification of education and the reduction of the company's willingness to fund the decrease in government funding and increasing institutional autonomy have forced universities to adopt new forms of manageme In Portugal, the Legal Regime of Higher Education Institutions (RJIES) sought to promote meaningful change and a paradigm shift in the governance of these institutions in Portugal. The main objective of this article is to understand the consequences that the new regulations had in the governance of HEI and in the adaptation of processes, in a context of reduction of higher education funding

Integrated reporting in the public sector – special focus on portuguese public university

Sustainability reporting began to emerge in the 1990s, with the aim of providing stakeholders with information on the company's performance through social, governance and environmental aspects (Eccles and Spiesshofer, 2017). The relevance of non-financial information has grown significantly, as more and more investors argue that financial information is not enough to understand the performance and value of the organization. At a time when companies want greater transparency, it is necessary that social justice and environmental protection are increasingly a reality. Information users, on the other hand, are more aware of the need to promote sustainable long-term profitability. Focusing on universities, these are essential pillars of society. Its main mission includes two main aspects, which are teaching and research; however, these entities were also called upon to contribute to society through the provision of services, their third mission. Do all public universities in Portugal produce sustainability reports? Or will it just be a few? The aim of this study is to carry out a survey of the accounts of these institutions, to assess whether they include sustainability reports, through which they convey to stakeholders their practices in this area

O NOVO SISTEMA DE AVALIAÇÃO E ACREDITAÇÃO DO ENSINO SUPERIOR: IMPACTO, REPERCUSSÕES E BENEFÍCIOS

The creation of a quality assurance system capable of international recognition is among the designs of the recent approval of the higher education legal system of evaluation. With this scheme, the Government intends to establish parameters for assessing quality, which include education, the qualifications of the faculty, the strategy adopted to ensure the quality of education, the scientific, technological and artistic activity, appropriated to the mission of the institution and international cooperation. The adoption of these measures aimed at achieving improved quality of higher education institutions, to provide information to the company founded on the performance of institutions, as well as the development of an internal institutional culture of quality assurance. This evaluation is mandatory and takes place in the European system of quality assurance in higher education. The agent of such assessment are the self-assessment, which is performed by each institution of higher education, and the external assessment, serving as basis for the process of accreditation, which is performed by the assessment and accreditation agency to assure the quality in higher education. The Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education was legally established in November 2007. The accreditation of higher education institutions and their courses is mandatory and can be an initiative of the Agency or of the higher education institutions themselves, which show interest. It is proposed in this paper to present develop the recent challenges faced by higher education institutions, giving special focus to the stage where the implementation of those government’s measures are.A criação de um sistema de garantia de qualidade susceptível de reconhecimento internacional encontra-se entre os desígnios da recente aprovação do regime jurídico da avaliação do ensino superior. Com este regime, o Governo de Portugal pretende instituir parâmetros de avaliação da qualidade, que incluem o ensino ministrado, a qualificação do corpo docente, a estratégia adoptada para garantir a qualidade do ensino, a actividade científica, tecnológica e artística, adequada à missão da instituição e a cooperação internacional. A aprovação destas medidas visa atingir a melhoria da qualidade das instituições de ensino superior, proporcionar informação fundamentada à sociedade sobre o desempenho das instituições, bem como o desenvolvimento de uma cultura institucional interna de garantia de qualidade. Esta avaliação assume carácter obrigatório e realiza-se no quadro do sistema europeu de garantia da qualidade no ensino superior. Os agentes de avaliação são a auto-avaliação, que é realizada por cada estabelecimento de ensino superior e a avaliação externa, que serve de base aos processos de acreditação, a qual é realizada pela agência de avaliação e acreditação para a garantia da qualidade do ensino superior. A Agência de Avaliação e Acreditação do Ensino Superior, foi criada legalmente em novembro de 2007. A acreditação de instituições de ensino superior e dos seus ciclos de estudos, é obrigatória e pode ser da iniciativa da Agência ou partir das próprias instituições de ensino superior, que se mostrem interessadas. Neste artigo propomo-nos apresentar e desenvolver os recentes desafios que se colocam às instituições de ensino superior, dando especial enfoque à fase em que a implementação destas medidas governamentais se encontre

Strategic Management, Leadership and Governance of the University in Portugal

Universities have a role in society different from other businesses or service industries. Universities as any human organizations are composed of people. And like any organization, they have a mission, objectives, goals, structures, roles and relationships of authority, decision-making processes and communication, interpersonal and intergroup dynamics, needs, values and interfaces. The diversity of determinants implies that the strategic management of universities become a multifunctional system decisions, which must be formulated, implemented and evaluated in order to achieve their long-term goals. The process of strategic management in universities incorporates the development and strategy formulation, implementation, monitoring and feedback. This article discusses the strategic management of organizations, especially universities, emphasizing the role that this process can have on the organization and how its implementation can help to enhance their leadership role in society to which it is addresse

The role of cost accounting in the university performance measurement in Portugal

Cost accounting is aimed at emphasising those elements of costs and profits of original importance to the management board of an organizational unit. Therefore, cost accounting was initially understood as mere collector of costs and profits, using the traditional system of costing everything, a budget with a limited base. Originally, it was designed to calculate real costs with the aim to determine the results. In public organizations, the aim of cost accounting, costs or management, can be summarized as follows: o Obtain information of how costs are found, both the ones corresponding to the internal activities as well as those for external services rendered and the cost realized investments; o Obtain information for cost and control management, with efficiency indicators of how the planned objectives were achieved and the efficient use of available resources. This paper aims at knowing the role of cost accounting in the public sector of higher education, and checks its contribution for the establishment of the management indicators in public institutions of higher education

The role of cost accounting in the university performance measurement in Portugal

Cost accounting is aimed at emphasising those elements of costs and profits of original importance to the management board of an organizational unit. Therefore, cost accounting was initially understood as mere collector of costs and profits, using the traditional system of costing everything, a budget with a limited base. Originally, it was designed to calculate real costs with the aim to determine the results. In public organizations, the aim of cost accounting, costs or management, can be summarized as follows: o Obtain information of how costs are found, both the ones corresponding to the internal activities as well as those for external services rendered and the cost realized investments; o Obtain information for cost and control management, with efficiency indicators of how the planned objectives were achieved and the efficient use of available resources. This paper aims at knowing the role of cost accounting in the public sector of higher education, and checks its contribution for the establishment of the management indicators in public institutions of higher education

Tendências recentes de abordagem à contabilidade pública em Portugal

In view of the special attention that has been given to public accounting in recent times, not only in Portugal but in most developed countries, an evolutionary/ chronological study of public accounting in Portugal shows to be of particular interest. This accounting, which had been submitted to meaningless anonymity for years, actually became the subject of special interest not only by the government and other entities involved, but also by the public in general, mainly when Portugal adhered to the European Community in 1986 and, later on, to the Economic and Monetary Union. To the extent that, particularly from 1990 onwards, a set of laws has been approved which regulate issues inherent to public accounting.These are inserted in a reform process that has not finished yet. Against this background, we hope that this study will enlighten the reader about the progress in public Accounting in Portugal, which from a merely legal accounting has turned into an accounting that is based on emerging economic, efficiency and efficacy criteria.Face à especial atenção que tem vindo a ser dada à contabilidade pública não só em Portugal como na maioria dos países desenvolvidos do mundo, revelase de particular interesse um estudo evolutivo/cronológico da contabilidade pública em Portugal. Com efeito, esta contabilidade, submetida durante anos a um anonimato sem sentido, viu, sobretudo com a adesão de Portugal à Comunidade Europeia em 1986 e, mais tarde, à União Económica e Monetária, um interesse especial não só do Governo e entidades envolvidas, como do público em geral. E tanto assim é, que sobretudo desde 1990 que se assiste à aprovação de um conjunto de diplomas reguladores das matérias inerentes à contabilidade pública, inseridos num processo de reformas que ainda não terminou. É com este pano de fundo que pretendemos elaborar este trabalho, o qual esperamos elucide o leitor sobre os progressos da contabilidade pública em Portugal, que, de uma contabilidade meramente legal, passa a uma contabilidade baseada em critérios emergentes de economia, eficiência e eficácia