摘要：The measurement of success of any organization requires evaluating various aspects of their operations,such as the quality of their product and services,operational efficiency and the way in which costs are managed,to name a few.South African private universities do not receive any government funding like their public counterparts and,hence,need to depend on student fees as their main source of funding.This limited source of funding makes it difficult to compete with the State funded universities,as the cost of their courses is far more expensive than those of public universities.It is not possible to manage the income side of their budget and therefore private universities need to manage the cost side of their budget.A survey was carried out in 2005,to examine the costing systems of forty-five registered private universities in South Africa.The study revealed that these institutions were still relying on traditional costing systems.In 2010,a paper by this author indicated that the cost to implement a new system far exceeds the benefits.However,since then many private universities have merged and established partnerships which enabled them to compete against the public universities.This paper suggests a new approach to manage costs at private universities using an activity-based costing approach.
关键词：The measurement of success of any organization requires evaluating various aspects of their operations,such as the quality of their product and services,operational efficiency and the way in which costs are managed,to name a few.South African private universities do not receive any government funding like their public counterparts and,hence,need to depend on student fees as their main source of funding.This limited source of funding makes it difficult to compete with the State funded universities,as the cost of their courses is far more expensive than those of public universities.It is not possible to manage the income side of their budget and therefore private universities need to manage the cost side of their budget.A survey was carried out in 2005,to examine the costing systems of forty-five registered private universities in South Africa.The study revealed that these institutions were still relying on traditional costing systems.In 2010,a paper by this author indicated that the cost to implement a new system far exceeds the benefits.However,since then many private universities have merged and established partnerships which enabled them to compete against the public universities.This paper suggests a new approach to manage costs at private universities using an activity-based costing approach.
