Part I - Overview

Section A: General Overview

In conclusion

48. TRAC is a complex process, with a ten-year implementation period, which has to satisfy a number of different objectives and stakeholders, and to be applicable across a large and diverse group of institutions, with a minimum of additional administrative effort. Because of the way it has influenced funding and institutional management, TRAC has had a broader impact on the HE sector than just as a costing method. Different people may not all have the same things in mind when they refer to TRAC. It certainly will be perceived differently in different institutions. So far, TRAC has proved flexible and robust enough to accommodate all these needs, while also being sufficiently rigorous and challenging to move practice forwards in the sector. But there is much work still to do.
49. Some would prefer TRAC to look simpler, but much of the apparent complexity in the guidance comes from the multiple activities and streams of accountability that HE institutions are subject to (unlike, say Research Councils, they have to account for publicly-funded teaching, and enterprise activity as well as research, and they are funded for each activity from a mix of public and private sources; they may also own other buildings such as museums and churches).
50. There are also some inherently difficult costing issues in higher education which include (but are not limited to): medical schools and the knock-for-knock relationships with the NHS; distinguishing research and scholarship; costing complex heritage estates and multi-user facilities with no market value; and accounting for the time of academic staff who often work well outside any standard working week and on multi-task activities (such as supervising PGR students) which cannot easily be categorised as just one of teaching or research.
51. Overall, TRAC can be relied upon to provide robust costs for a number of different purposes. These include: to show probity of funding; to estimate project costs; to inform pricing; and to inform decision-making in institutions. But whilst TRAC produces robust cost information, it does not dictate the decisions to be made. Those decisions should not normally be driven by cost factors alone, or even primarily. Academic and strategic considerations should set the context and guide decisions; costs should just be used to help inform this process.

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