Abstract

MARQUES, Maria da Conceição da Costa. New trends in university management in Portugal: the role of cost accounting. Economia Global e Gestão [online]. 2008, vol.13, n.3, pp.119-136. ISSN 0873-7444.

Cost accounting was developed to emphasise the elements within costs and gains, which are of primary interest for the organization’s top management. Thus, cost accounting was initially connoted as a mere compilation of costs and gains, traditionally applying the full costing system; it was a strict budget. It was then guided towards the calculation of real costs in order to determine results. In public organizations, the aims of cost or management accounting may be synthesised as follows: obtaining information on cost formation, regarding internal activities and external service provision and investment costs; obtaining information for management analysis and control, with efficiency indicators which help to achieve the stated objectives and the efficiency with which the available resources were used. The aim of this paper is to identify the role of cost accounting in the public higher education system and to determine its contribution in establishing management indicators in public higher education institutions.

Keywords : Cost Accounting; Management; Indicators; Education.

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