COST MANAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION FEDERAL INSTITUTIONS IN BRAZIL: A MANAGEMENT REPORT ANALYSIS

Cost management in the public sector has proved to be a difficult task, especially in higher education institutions. The purpose of this research is to investigate the recent experiences of cost management in Brazilian federal universities, under a new scenario of performance requirements and availability of compulsory functionalities for cost assessment in the Integrated System for Financial Management (SIAFI) of the Federal Government. This is a qualitative research, conducted through content analysis of management reports provided by the existing Brazilian federal universities, with the assistance of the software Atlas.ti. The analysis reveals that, out of the studied federal universities, 40% do not utilise any cost assessment system and that the integration barriers with supporting information systems often serve as excuses not to implement cost management. The mandatory insertion of information on cost centres within SIAFI, as well as legal requirements are the main motivations for federal universities to conduct cost assessment. The presentation of cost information just referring to the costs website of the federal government was a recurrent approach in the federal universities’ management reports. For benchmarking, there is a clear need to standardize a cost assessment methodology for Higher Education Federal Institutions (HEFI) and to train the universities’ staff in the application of such a methodology. From this study, it is possible to realise the magnitude of the challenge still ahead for the HEFI to adapt to the financially constrained higher education scenario in Brazil.