Managerial accounting in education. Activity based costing in higher education

The profound transformations and financial pressures experienced by universities in recent decades require effective control tools, in line with the new information needs of these organizations. This chapter discusses the implications of the activity based approach in Universities and its contribution to their management. It also addresses the implementation problems related to the construction of an activity based costing model for these organizations. It analyzes the “Good Practices” Project, that involves a quite large number of Italian universities with the aim to create an awareness on administrative processes and activities, to develop a shared model for evaluating activities, to undertake a benchmarking process for these universities, and to stimulate innovative organizational solutions with regard to administrative activities