How to visualize university budget models?

January 19, 2024 7:15 PM

I'm looking for clear, easy-to-understand visual representations or diagrams of the various higher education budgeting models: where does the money come in from, how does it get apportioned through various parties and stakeholders—academics, athletics, maintenance, administration, etc.—and where does it get spent or produce value? I'm guessing graduate textbooks in management accounting or the economics of higher education would be the first place to look, but I'm not having any luck.

I want to visually trace how models represent streams of appropriations and allocations: where they come from and where they go. Those models have a variety of different names: activity-based, centralized or formula budgeting, incremental, performance-based, RCM, and zero-based are the primary ones I've encountered, and then some institutions use a mix and call it "enrollment-based" or something similar. Diagrams or graphics would help me follow the money—but even if not, cites for clear and direct written textbook explanations would be super-helpful.

posted by vitia to Education (5 answers total)

There may be something relevant in Robert Kelchen's higher ed finance reading list. He recently posted the 2024 version.
posted by ElKevbo at 8:11 PM on January 19 [2 favorites]

This Ithaka report has at least some of what you want.
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:06 AM on January 20 [1 favorite]

You could start with this book. It's used as a text for many Higher Ed finance courses.
posted by yellowcandy at 9:45 AM on January 20

Honestly, I'm not sure what you're seeking actually exists. I've worked in higher ed for my whole career, including lots of overlap with University budgeting. The way my institution budgets is vastly different than any other institution, including those with very similar characteristics. We all use different vocabulary, different internal formulas, and have different fund inputs. Different functions within the same university will be funded entirely differently (some supported by state dollars vs. some entirely self-funding, for example).

You could probably do a pretty good job of describing one institution and learn a lot of the basics to apply to the next, but every new place would require you to start from scratch. You'd also find that the rules change when you look at public/private, research institution/teaching institution, non-profit/for-profit, and which state you're in. Just thinking about it from this question makes me realize how challenging this would actually be. One school is not very generalizeable to another.

That said, public institutions generally do an OK job of making their budget info public to a reasonable degree, if you're willing to wade through the details. Here's a starting point for the University of Washington (my university), for example. Through these pages they describe the internal budget decision process, the inputs/outputs of funds, and they even publish the numbers of the budget itself for many years back. I'm not finding a visual with the detail you are seeking, but I think most of the info you're asking for is there as a starting point.

Good luck - this is a challenging task you're outlining.
posted by owls at 11:55 AM on January 20 [8 favorites]

visualizing these kinds of things (and absent any helpful higher-ed budget subject matter expertise) can often be done with "sankey diagrams."

There's an example, and a pretty flexible/robust "make-your-own" tool, at sankeymatic.com. I've done a couple of these for tracking some processes over time; I'm no expert but I'd be happy to help sketch out an example.
posted by adekllny at 2:39 PM on January 20 [2 favorites]