Assessing the financial viability of academic programmes

Abstract

This paper reviews and examines approaches to determining the financial viability of academic programmes as a critical component of assessing a programme's overall sustainability. Key to assessing the financial viability of a programme is understanding the teaching activities required to deliver the programme and the cost of those activities. A review of the literature has revealed a range of approaches that can be taken in these respects and the issues which need to be addressed. Building on a literature review and applying a chosen approach to a case study, the paper draws conclusions on the suitability of the overall approach both to the specific case study and in general. The analysis was unable to produce a single, accurate number that captured the financial viability of a programme. This was in part because of the lack of available detailed information on some elements of the costing; but more importantly it reflected uncertainty in how an academic's time spent in research should be treated. Recommendations are made for further work highlighting possible criteria for prioritising data collection.

Keywords:

• activity-based costing
• costing methodologies
• financial viability

Acknowledgement

This paper is based on the author's project report, prepared while studying in the LH Martin Institute's Master of Tertiary Education Management programme in 2010.