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Better accountability revisited: review of accountability costs 2004

Summary

In May 2000, HEFCE published a report 'Better Accountability for Higher Education' (HEFCE 00/36), based on work undertaken by PA Consulting on the impacts, drivers and costs of external accountability demands on higher education institutions (HEIs). Five years on from the original fieldwork, HEFCE commissioned PA Consulting to revisit their assessment of the impacts of external accountability requirements on HEIs - from HEFCE and other stakeholders - and to advise whether the perceived (and measured) costs of meeting those requirements had increased or decreased.

There is an ongoing debate within the HE sector over the extent to which the accountability requirements identified in these studies should be regarded as burdensome impositions or part of the 'business-as-usual' responsibilities of an institution operating in publicly funded markets. The current report does not enter this debate. The remit was to investigate changes in accountability-related costs 'as perceived by the sampled universities'.

This report thus provides an update and some sample evidence for one side of the continuing debate over accountability burdens in HE.

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Last updated 18 June 2004