What costs are considered in the expenditure section?
In the Expenditure section of the questionnaire, all costs of running the higher education institution are considered. This means not just the direct expenditures on teaching and research, but also overhead costs such as for maintenance, support services, administration, libraries, cultural and recreational activities. The condition is that such expenditures are included in the institution’s accounts (normally, its Income Statement) and therefore are truly related to the institution’s overall activity.
What does the question "Please specify what types of costs are paid directly by external bodies?" mean in relation to ownership of buildings?
The question "Please specify what types of costs are paid directly by external bodies?" relates to the preceding question in the U-Map questionnaire on ownership of the buildings (owned by the institution, or not). In case not all buildings are owned by the university, we ask you to indicate what types of cost are met by others.
If the government owns (some of) your institution's buildings, what broad types of operational costs does it cover: maintenance costs, capital works (investment), or even costs like energy, cleaning, security, etc? We only like to know whether, in case you make extensive use of such infractructure, your institution is paying for that use like any other private organisation would do (that is: paying a market-type rent plus other running costs), or whether it is in some way subsidised (for instance: not paying any rent or not contributing to capital works).
This information will be used as context information to better understand cost differences between institutions from different national settings.
Can we estimate breakdown by costcenter?
The distinction between income and expenditure per activity (teaching; research; knowledge exchange) will not be readily available for many institutions. In cases like this, we hope to receive an estimate that is as accurate as possible.