The Financial Report of the Universities: maintaining academic standards? An empirical research to the size with explanation of the differences.

Abstract

This paper describes research done concerning the size, level and explanation of the financial reports of 14 Dutch universities. Based on earlier research in the USA concerning the financial report of niversities, 14 Dutch financial reports are examined. See the Tables. In spite of the regulations the quantity and quality of the financial university reports diverge much, in particular the information provided about costs and output of education and research varies from university to university. For an explanation of the data a number well-known hypothesis such as Zimmerman''s size, debt/equity hypothesis were tested first. After that a disclosure index was developed for expressing the several information items in a unique report mark per university. The results can be explained by the kind of university, the size (number of students and revenues) and the long-term liabilities, in accordance with the research abroad. Therefore the main conclusion is that the findings of the research outside the Netherlands such as the importance of size and long-term liabilities hold largely in the Netherlands, too.accounting and auditing ;